Recently, my two kids expressed an interest in playing Dungeons and Dragons. I had to decide between D&D 5th Edition - which is the most 'modern' version of D&D, but I landed on Old-School Essentials, as it is a lot simpler and easier for kids to understand.
My daughter rolled up an Elf, Pine Goldwood, and my son rolled up a Dwarf, Lead Hammer (Lead as in Leader, not as in lead pipe).
So I decided to create a short 5 room dungeon, following the guidelines from https://www.roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeons/.
The Lost Tomb
The Town of Bodmin
On the fringes of the great Western forest, days from the nearest town, is the small village of Bodmin. There are few travellers, but there is a small inn 'The Gamekeeper' for the occasional traveller and noblemen who hunt the fringes of the forest.
The innkeeper in Will Barrowman, a portly man in his fifties, who takes great care with his guests. If they ask after dungeons, or it becomes known they are aventurers, he tells of the last time adventurers came here - three of them, a man, a woman, and a halfling (man) who asked after the Hill Tomb nearby - they went out and never came back. This must have been twenty years ago.
The Tomb itself is two miles away, west into the forest. It has a bad reputation and locals shun it, and is thought to be haunted. It is far from the hunting trails. But he is happy to give them directions as long as they pay their bill ahead of time.
In the town, they might notice three men keeping an eye on them. These ne'er do wells have assumed that these strangers will not be missed. They rob noblemen when they can and they are not used to people fighting back.
The Bandits
About half an hour into the woods, the three men will step out of the trail ahead of them, and demand their purses. They will not be expecting a fight - and if they are attacked they will fight for a couple of rounds or until they are injured and then will flee.
Bandits AC 8, HP 4, THACO 19, Dam 1d6 (Stannis, Jed, Magwitch)
The Tomb in the Cliff
For a further hour, the trail winds deeper into the woods - it is overgrown and hard going. But then the trail opens up into a little clearing. At a far end are two large stone slabs set into a low cliff, with a lintel stone atop it. However, it looks like the cliff is unstable.
The rightmost door is cracked - and has been wedged open and broken. The previous adventurers used hammers and crowbars to crack open the large stone door to the tomb, in order to slip inside. However, in the decades in between the lintel has slipped, and the cliff face has consequently become unstable. Any dwarf will see the danger - as will anyone making an INT or WIS roll.
The players will need to think of some clever way to get past the unstable doorway - they might use massive strength to move the door, or construct a support to stop it from collapsing, or use DEX to slip in without disturbing the cliff face. Any clever idea should be rewarded.
The Flooded Chamber
Inside, there is a wide tunnel 20' wide and 40' long. Either from the broken door or from shifting water tables, the tunnel is flooded. The water is dark and it is impossible to see how deep it is (it is pretty evenly 6' deep). It is also freezing cold. The challenge will be to travel to the far end, where large stone double doors and steps leading up can be seen.
The danger, aside from drowning if the character is short, is that goods become soaked - such as magic books or torches and lamps. They will be useless and perhaps permanently damaged. Also, the weather is icy cold - a saving throw vs breath attacks is required to not have numbed fingers and uneven breathing and be -4 to fight.
The Stairway Guardians
Stairs rise up from the icy water. As the players approach, three skeletal guardians rise up. One looks ancient - its clothes and armour are in an ancient style and the skin is completely rotted from the bones. But the other two are mostly skeletal, but their weapons are varied and their clothes not rotted - these seem to be the adventurers who obviously destroyed a couple of guardians but then joined their ranks.
The three attack until destroyed. 30 XP to fight them all.
Skeletons AC 7, 4 HP, D1d6, THACO 19
Any characters who die will rise up at the next full moon and join the ancient guardians to defend the tomb.
The ancient skeleton has o assets, but the two recent skeeletons carry a total of 20gp in leather pouches.
The Sarcophagus Room
The large stone doors are slightly ajar. Inside is the stone mausoleum with a stone sarcophagus. The corpse is dressed in fine ancient robes, only slightly rotted, and wears a fine gold necklace. It has obviously been here for centuries. Beside the tomb is the halfling adventurer - long dead. A poisoned spike has skewered his hand and he died from the poison. There is the only one trap and the players are quite safe but it will be interesting to see if they are extra cautious in the room and around the sarcophagus.
There are two main treasures in this room. The first is the gold necklace - worth 120gp. It is safe to remove and can be sold in the village. The second gret treasure is a map - n ancient map with charcoal notes scrawled on, in a map case on the halfling's body. He has 5gp in a purse. The map is a map of the Lost Valley of the Kings. It shows a path from the village of Bodmin past this tomb, deeply into the woods, where, apparently behind a waterfall, there is a path to a secret valley unexplored for 1000 years, where the tombs of the old Kings are...an adventure to come once they have left the tomb...
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