Special rooms
Now and then a room of the dungeon is not like the others. A special room changes the rules while you are inside it: the light, the noise you make, how fast you heal, who dares to follow you in, or the floor under your feet.
This page lists every kind. Some have pages of their own: Teeming dens, full of sleeping creatures; Altars, forges, and springs, the rooms that hold something to use; and Cursed, haunted, and hallowed rooms, where the dead rise or are kept out.
Finding one
The first time you step into a special room, a message tells you what it is:
The light seems to drain away here.
From then on you know the room. Look mode names it on any of its floor you see or remember (“A stone floor in an echoing hall.”, “You remember a stone floor here, in a sanctuary.”). Before you have been inside, it is just a room, though you may notice something odd about it from the doorway: an unnatural darkness, a faint warm glow, water on the floor. Some rooms give themselves away from outside: the first time you see any part of one, a line hints at what lies there.
Special rooms are not terribly common, but not rare either. About three levels of a generated dungeon in five have one, and a level never has more than one, though some dungeons allow more. In the rooms-and-corridors levels it is a whole room, walls and doors included, but never the room you arrive in. In the caverns it is a patch of the cave, well away from where you arrive. Cēaptūn’s Mynster is a sanctuary.
By dungeon
Each dungeon may have odds of its own, and some of its levels other odds again. A dungeon may be full of flooded rooms, or never have a shop.
- “A room is special” is the chance for each room (each of eight tries in a cavern), until the level has as many as “At most a level”.
- The kind of room is then drawn. The rooms a dungeon favours keep their fixed share of the draws, and a room it bans never comes. Every other room comes by its weight in the table of rooms below, so a dungeon gets every kind of room it does not ban.
- “A shop” is the chance that a rooms-and-corridors level has one, if one of its rooms suits (see Shops).
| Levels | A room is special | At most a level | Special rooms | A shop | Shops | Kept by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brocenburg 1–4 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | never | — | — |
| Bānfeld 1–4 | 25% | 2 | Shadowed room 35%; Hushed chamber 35%; the rest any, by weight | never | — | — |
| Cealdhlāw 1–6 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | 70% | general store, weaponsmith, armourer, provisioner, alchemist, fletcher | Shopkeeper |
| Dēopgang 1–11 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | 50% | general store | Deep-gnome trader |
| Fennmynster 1–8 | 25% | 2 | Shadowed room 15%; Hushed chamber 15%; Flooded room 35%; Cursed room 15%; the rest any, by weight; never sweltering chamber, forge | never | — | — |
| Fyrdelf 1–12 | 12% | 1 | Armoury 20%; the rest any, by weight | 100% | general store | Duergar trader |
| Grundlēas 1 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | never | — | — |
| Hellegeat 1–5 | never | — | — | never | — | — |
| Lytelscræf 1–3 | never | — | — | never | — | — |
| Meyn Bew 1–4 | never | — | — | never | — | — |
| The Depths 1–8 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | 70% | general store, weaponsmith, armourer, provisioner, alchemist, fletcher | Shopkeeper |
| Wulfeshol 1–4 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | never | — | — |
| Wyrtholm 1–4 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | never | — | — |
| Ælfhām 1–3 | never | — | — | never | — | — |
| Ūtgang 1–3 | 12% | 1 | Any, by weight | never | — | — |
Whole levels
Very rarely, a room’s effect does not stay in a room. When a level draws a room that can spread, there is a small chance (its “Whole level” chance below) that the effect covers the whole level instead, and the room itself is plain. You are told each time you arrive on such a level, and the effect holds everywhere on it. Where a room’s effect and a whole level’s meet, both apply: a shadowed room on a gloomy level is darker still. Two rooms can do this: the draining room and the cursed room.
The rooms
“Weight” is how often a room is drawn against the others. “Share” is the part of all draws it gets where a dungeon favours or bans nothing. “Only” says where it can come at all.
| Room | The first time you enter | Inside | Weight | Share | Whole level | Only |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadowed room | “The light seems to drain away here.” | All light is drained to 30% of what it would be. | 10 | 6.8% | never | — |
| Echoing hall | “Your footsteps echo loudly.” | Every noise made in it is twice as loud, and so carries farther. | 8 | 5.4% | never | — |
| Hushed chamber | “A deep hush fills this room.” | Every noise made in it is two fifths as loud. | 8 | 5.4% | never | — |
| Sanctuary | “You feel at peace here.” | A faint warm glow lights it. Wounds heal three times as fast. Mana comes back three times as fast. Creatures hostile to you do not step in. | 6 | 4.1% | never | — |
| Flooded room | “The floor here is flooded.” | Its floor is shallow water. | 8 | 5.4% | never | — |
| Black chamber | “The dark here swallows your light.” | No light at all is kept in it, carried light too. | 5 | 3.4% | never | — |
| Draining room | “You feel your power seeping out of you.” Over a whole level: “Something here drinks at your power.” | A faint glow lights it. Everyone inside with mana, creatures too, is Ebbing: 1 mana drained every 20 s, none coming back; it eases 30 s after leaving. Consecrate lifts it for good. | 6 | 4.1% | 5% | — |
| Teeming den | “You hear slow breathing all around you.” From outside: “A warm, rank smell drifts out of the dark ahead.” | Full of sleeping creatures and their hoard (see Teeming dens). | 8 | 5.4% | never | On a level with a danger, in a room of 16 floor cells or more |
| Sweltering chamber | “A wave of heat meets you.” | A faint warm glow lights it. It is 25 °C warmer than the level around it, and nothing else. | 5 | 3.4% | never | — |
| Frigid hall | “Your breath mists in the bitter cold.” | A faint glow lights it. It is 25 °C colder than the level around it, and nothing else. | 5 | 3.4% | never | — |
| Silent vault | “Your footsteps make no sound at all.” | Every noise made in it is a hundredth as loud. Everyone inside, creatures too, is Silenced: unable to cast spells, read, sing, or throw their voice; it eases 10 s after leaving. | 5 | 3.4% | never | — |
| Heavy hall | “Your pack drags at you, as if the stones pulled it down.” | Everyone’s carrying limit is half what it is outside, so a load weighs on one twice as much. | 4 | 2.7% | never | — |
| Hall of mirrors | “Your reflection stares back at you from every side.” | Everyone inside you see is shown with 2 reflections of them on free floor of the room, moving every turn and looking just like them. A blow or a step into one meets only glass and takes a blow’s time; a missile aimed at one flies on through it. A creature outside shooting or throwing at you inside aims at you or one of your reflections, each alike; creatures inside are not fooled. | 3 | 2.0% | never | In a room of 80 floor cells or fewer |
| Unstable room | “The floor shimmers under your feet.” | Every step inside, yours or a creature’s, has a 10% chance to move the stepper to a free spot elsewhere on the level, as a teleport trap does. | 4 | 2.7% | never | In a room of 60 floor cells or fewer |
| Beast den | “Heavy shapes breathe in the dark around you.” From outside: “You smell musk and old blood.” | Full of sleeping creatures and their hoard (see Teeming dens). | 5 | 3.4% | never | On a level with a danger, in a dungeon whose own creatures include wildlife or vermin or marsh things, in a room of 16 floor cells or more |
| Tempting hoard | “Treasure lies here, unguarded.” From outside: “Something glitters ahead.” | 3 items lie on its floor, 3 item levels above the level’s. The first stack you lift inside seals it: every door of it shuts (unless something is in the doorway) and locks with a lock of the level’s depth that only a skeleton key opens, and 2 to 4 creatures hostile to you of the level’s danger + 1 come on its edge, out of your sight where they can (Old hand: the second stack). It seals once. | 5 | 3.4% | never | On a level with a danger |
| Collapsed floor | “The floor creaks under your weight.” From outside: “The floor ahead is cracked and sagging.” | Its middle is cracked floor; the floor beside its walls and doors is sound, so there is always a way round. Every step of yours onto its cracked floor has a 15% chance (30% while you are Burdened or worse) to give way: you fall to the level below, landing somewhere open on it (never behind a locked door, never in a shop), take 2d6 damage (it can kill you), and are Staggered. Creatures never fall (Old delver: you never do). | 3 | 2.0% | never | With a level below |
| Cursed room | “The air is cold and the dead are near.” From outside: “A cold draught smells of the grave.” Over a whole level: “The dead do not rest on this level.” | A creature that dies in it (not one of the undead) rises from its corpse 2 minutes later as one of them, unless the corpse is gone by then (see Cursed rooms). Consecrate lifts it for good. | 6 | 4.1% | 5% | On a level with a danger |
| Altar room | “An old altar stands here, its god long forgotten.” From outside: “A faint glow rises from an altar ahead.” | A forgotten altar stands in it: pray beside it (see Forgotten altars). | 8 | 5.4% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
| Forge | “A cold forge, and an anvil waiting.” From outside: “You smell old soot and cold iron.” | An anvil stands in it: work metal arms or armour beside it (see Forges). | 3 | 2.0% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
| Spring | “Clear water wells up in an old stone basin.” | A spring stands in it: drink beside it (see Healing springs). | 4 | 2.7% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
| Armoury | “Racks of old arms line the walls. Not everything here is hanging up.” | Full of sleeping creatures and their hoard (see Teeming dens). Weapon racks stand along its walls, one per 8 floor cells (1 to 6). | 4 | 2.7% | never | On a level with a danger, where one of its own creatures can be met at the level’s danger, in a room of 16 floor cells or more |
| Workshop | “Benches line the walls, littered with tools and pots. Something shifts on one of them.” | Full of sleeping creatures and their hoard (see Teeming dens). Workbenches stand along its walls, one per 10 floor cells (1 to 4). | 4 | 2.7% | never | On a level with a danger, where one of its own creatures can be met at the level’s danger, in a room of 16 floor cells or more |
| Shrine | Of its side: “You feel welcome here.” Of the other: “Something here wants you gone.” Neutral: “An old shrine. It ignores you.” | A shrine stone stands in it. It is good or evil, one to one, and only its stone’s light tells which (gold good, red evil). Everyone inside, creatures too, is treated by their own side: one of its side heals twice as fast; one of the other side is Unwelcome: wounds heal at 50% of the pace, -1 to hit; it eases 30 s after leaving; a neutral one, nothing. | 4 | 2.7% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
| Haunted room | “It is very quiet here. Too quiet to sleep.” From outside: “You hear a whisper, and then nothing.” | While you rest inside, each time the clock passes a full hour one of the undead of the level’s danger comes inside (as the dead rise in a cursed room: of that level, else the nearest), out of your sight where it can, and comes for you. It never comes while you do anything else (see Haunted rooms). Consecrate lifts it for good. | 5 | 3.4% | never | On a level with a danger |
| Scriptorium | “Shelves of rotting scrolls line the walls.” From outside: “You smell dust and old vellum.” | Shelves stand in it. 2 to 4 scrolls lie on its floor, found at the level’s item level. While you are inside, Decipher script’s training marks come twice as often (at most every time). | 5 | 3.4% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
| Treasure room | “Gold glints in the dust. No one has been here in a long time.” | Every door of it is a secret door, found by searching; in a cave it is a box in the rock with one secret door. It is never counted among the level’s own secret doors. 1d2 chests of the level’s item level, 1d4+1 heaps of 3d6 × 2 gold coins, and 1d3 loose gems lie inside. Nothing guards it and nothing seals. On every arrival on its level until you have been inside: “Something tells you there is wealth hidden on this level.”. | 4 | 2.7% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
| Greater treasure room | “The air is stale and heavy with the smell of old gold.” | It has no door and no corridor: a box walled up in the rock, on any level. One of its walls (beside a passage you can reach) is guaranteed to open it; searching beside it (as for a secret door, at the same difficulty) finds that “the wall here sounds hollow”. Dig through it or blast it open (a stone wall, hardness 600). Nothing that the level needs is ever inside, no trap is hidden in it, and nothing wanders in. 2d2 chests of the level’s item level, 2d4+2 heaps of 4d6 × 5 gold coins, and 2d3 loose gems lie inside. Nothing guards it and nothing seals. On every arrival on its level until you have been inside: “Something tells you a fortune lies walled up on this level.”. | 2 | 1.4% | never | In a room of 9 floor cells or more |
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Shadowed room. Magical darkness. Every light that reaches into the room keeps only part of its strength there: your lantern, wall torches, fires, and the sun or moon through an opening alike. With normal eyes you see little inside unless a light is close. Creatures there are hidden just as you are, and they see you no better. Darkvision works as anywhere else.
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Echoing hall. Everything you do in it is loud: your footsteps, opening a door, fighting. Louder sounds carry farther, so creatures much farther away hear you (see Hearing). The same goes for creatures making noise in it.
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Hushed chamber. The opposite: noise made inside barely carries. A good place to sneak through, or to fight without drawing a crowd.
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Sanctuary. A place of peace with a faint warm glow, enough to see by. You heal much faster while you stand in it (see Hit points and death). Creatures hostile to you will not step in; they stay outside, waiting. They can still strike at you across the threshold if you stand in the doorway, and shoot at you from outside. Creatures that are not hostile to you come and go as they please.
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Flooded room. Ankle-deep water over the floor. Wading through it is slower than walking, and every step splashes loudly (see Terrain).
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Black chamber. A dark that swallows every light, your lantern included: nothing inside is lit at all. Only darkvision sees in it, so creatures inside are hidden from normal eyes, and you from theirs.
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Draining room. Something in it drinks at magic. Everyone inside who has mana, you and creatures alike, is Ebbing (see Status effects) for as long as they stay and half a minute after they leave. Ebbing drains a point of mana every 20 seconds, and none comes back meanwhile, so a fight between casters in a draining room soon becomes a brawl. It glows a faint cold violet. One floor in twenty that draws a draining room is drained throughout instead.
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Sweltering chamber. Hot air: 25 °C warmer than the level around it, with a faint red glow. The heat does nothing to you, but ice melts in it (see Temperature and ice). The pause menu tells the heat as you step in.
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Frigid hall. Bitter cold: 25 °C colder than the level around it, with a faint blue glow. Its water freezes even on a mild level, so a pool in it is usually solid ice. The cold does nothing to you.
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Silent vault. A dead silence. Every noise made inside is a hundredth as loud, so a fight there is barely heard even next door (see Hearing). Everyone inside, you and creatures alike, is Silenced (see Status effects) for as long as they stay and ten seconds after they leave. No spell can be cast, no scroll read, and no voice thrown. A wizard and a kobold shaman fight with sticks in it; a thief walks through unheard.
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Heavy hall. The stones pull at whatever you carry. Inside, your carrying limit is half what it is anywhere else, so a load that was light makes you burdened, and armour that only burdened you strains you (see Burden). Creatures carry less inside too. If what you carry would overload you inside, you cannot go in (“You carry too much to go in there.”). If you overload yourself inside by picking something up, you can still step back out.
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Teeming den. A room full of sleeping creatures and the things they have gathered. You may smell it before you see it, and you hear it when you step in. See Teeming dens.
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Hall of mirrors. Glass on every side. Everyone in it, you too, is shown with two reflections that look exactly like them, standing elsewhere in the room and shifting every turn. Nothing on the screen tells a reflection from the real thing; look mode only knows your own (“Your reflection”). Swing at or walk into a reflection and your blow meets only glass, which costs you the blow’s time. An arrow or a thrown dagger aimed at one flies on through it. An archer outside the hall shooting at you while you are inside aims at you or at one of your reflections, each as likely. Creatures inside the hall know it and are never fooled. Spells that fly to the first creature in their way pass the reflections by. Only rooms of 80 floor cells or fewer can be one.
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Unstable room. A small room, 60 floor cells at most, whose floor shimmers. Every step you take inside has a one in ten chance to fling you somewhere else on the level, as a teleport trap does (“You are wrenched elsewhere.”). Creatures stepping in are flung just the same, so fleeing through one is a gamble, and so is chasing someone into it.
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Collapsed floor. A room whose floor is cracked and sagging (shown as
:, “cracked floor”), found only on a level with another below it. Only the middle of the room is cracked. The floor next to its walls and doors is always sound, so you can always walk round the cracks from one door to another.Every step you take onto the cracked stone has a 15 % chance to give way, 30 % while you are burdened or worse (“The floor gives way beneath you!”). You fall to the level below and land somewhere open on it, never behind a locked door or in a shop. You take 2d6 damage, which can kill you, and are Staggered. It is a quick way down, if you can take the bruises. Creatures never fall through.
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Treasure room. Wealth nobody has touched in a long time. Inside lie one or two chests of the level’s depth (see Chests), two to five heaps of gold coins (three six-sided dice times two coins: 6 to 36 coins a heap), and one to three loose gems.
Every door of it is a secret door, so you must search the walls to find the way in, or dig in. In a cavern it is a box cut into the rock with one hidden door. Nothing guards it and nothing seals it: its only dangers are its chests’ traps and the time it takes to find. Each time you arrive on its level until you have been inside, something tells you there is wealth hidden on this level.
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Greater treasure room. A fortune walled up in the rock. Inside lie two to four chests of the level’s depth, four to ten heaps of gold coins (four six-sided dice times five coins: 20 to 120 coins a heap), and two to six loose gems.
It has no door and no corridor at all: nothing leads there, and the only way in is through a wall. One of its walls, beside a passage you can reach, is always thin. Search beside it (as for a secret door, at the same difficulty) and the wall here sounds hollow. Look at it and it is a hollow stone wall. Dig through it with a pick-axe, or blast it open (a scroll of fireball does it). Any other wall of it can be dug too, if you guess well. Without a digging tool or a blast you cannot get in, so come back with one.
Nothing the level needs is ever inside, no trap is hidden in it, and no creature wanders in. Each time you arrive on its level until you have been inside, something tells you a fortune lies walled up on this level.
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Tempting hoard. Only on a level with a danger. Three items lie on its floor, better than the level’s own (three item levels above it), and no one guards them.
The moment you pick anything up inside, the room seals. Every door of it slams shut and locks (“The doors slam shut!”); a door with something in the doorway stays open. Two to four creatures hostile to you, a step more dangerous than the level’s own, appear at the room’s edges, where you cannot see them if there is such a place. The locks are of the level’s depth, and no key but a skeleton key fits. Pick them, kick the doors in, or fight. A cave chamber has no doors, so there only the guardians come. A room seals once.
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Cursed room. The dead do not rest in it: see Cursed rooms below. Only on a level with a danger. One floor in twenty that draws a cursed room is cursed throughout instead.
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Haunted room. A fine camp spot that is not. Rest in it and the dead come, once every hour (see Haunted rooms below). Only on a level with a danger.
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Altar room. An old altar stands in the middle of the room, its god long forgotten, and a faint glow rises from it; you notice it from the doorway. Stand beside it and you may pray (see Forgotten altars). Only rooms of 9 floor cells or more can be one.
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Forge. A cold forge with an old anvil in the middle of the room; you smell soot and cold iron from the doorway. Stand beside the anvil and you may temper metal arms or armour you carry (see Forges). Only rooms of 9 floor cells or more can be one.
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Shrine. A squat stone shrine stands in the middle of the room. Like a forgotten altar it has a hidden side, but only good or evil, either as likely, and its stone’s light tells which: gold for good, red for evil. It cares only whether you are on its side (see Alignment).
- Of its side, you heal twice as fast inside (“You feel welcome here.”).
- Of the other side, you are Unwelcome (see Status effects) for as long as you stay and half a minute after you leave. Wounds heal at half the pace and your blows go a little astray (“Something here wants you gone.”).
- A neutral character is ignored (“An old shrine. It ignores you.”).
Creatures are treated the same way by their own side, so a good shrine is a poor place for an orc to fight you. There is nothing to pray to. Only rooms of 9 floor cells or more can be one.
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Scriptorium. Shelves of rotting scrolls stand in the middle of the room (shown as
≡), and you may smell the dust and old vellum before you see it. Two to four scrolls lie on its floor, unread, of the kinds the level would give anyway. Inside, the chance of a training mark in Decipher script is doubled: making out a scroll or reading a grimoire through earns two marks here instead of one, and reading a scroll earns one every time instead of half the time. Only rooms of 9 floor cells or more can be one.
The Old delver talent (Delver; Willpower 11 or Dexterity 12) makes you at home in strange rooms. A collapsed floor never gives way under you, the Ebbing of a draining room never takes you, and nothing you kill ever rises in a cursed room. With Old hand after it (level 10), a room that quickens healing or mana quickens it half again more for you: a sanctuary’s three times as fast becomes four times. You can also lift one thing from a tempting hoard before it seals; the second seals it.
Only what happens inside counts. A sound made in an echoing hall is loud wherever it is heard, while one made outside and heard inside is not changed. Light outside a shadowed room is as bright as ever, even right at its door.
See also: Dungeons and danger and The dungeons one by one.