5 Awesome Rooms in The Dungeon of The Bear

Yes, it takes 3 hours to brush it

First off, there's spoilers for The Dungeon of the Bear in here. Second, this campaign has been and may continue to be very x-rated, so please proceed with caution.

Still here? Thanks pal! I first learned about this adventure from the great blog called Ten Foot Pole. The Dungeon of the Bear was made in the '70's and is just a wacky, weird dungeon full of stuff. We are using the D&D Next playtest rules.

I have 2 players now, a fighter and a wizard. I pared down the group, as I mentioned in my Perverts Run Amok blog post. I think our heroes will need an NPC cleric. So I am going to snag an NPC found in level 3 of this dungeon, and have the heroes bump into her as they enter. That's her to the left.

She's found on level 3, in room D. The mad orc wizard has been making humanoid-animal hybrids. She is a "female-alligator combination" originally meant to be found chained to a wall. "She looks just like a human warrior but has the pebbly skin of a gila monster or an iguana and a very powerful tail." Cool, right?

I'm going over my notes and I'd like to share with you some of the more exciting rooms our heroes may stumble onto in level 1.

I may have to watch this movie for research purposes

Room I. The heroes' path is blocked by a long pit 15 feet deep. Oh, but look, there's a ladder down and on the far end, a ladder back out. Let's just climb down, walk across, and climb out! But wait... you get into the pit, and the ceiling opens up. Water starts pouring down, filling the hole you're in at an incredible rate. And what else is falling in the watery pit? Why... hundreds of pirahnas!

Room J. In this room is a 10 foot long serpent. When the heroes enter the room, it immediately slithers back in fear. If our heroes slay it, it turns into its' true form: a beautiful maiden with a magic ruby in her mouth.

She had been forced to swallow the magical polymorph ruby. Should one of our heroes swallow it, they too become a 10 foot long serpent.

Room L. This starts off a bit similar to Room J. A gremlin cowers in the corner. Should our trusty adventurers slay the little fellow, the ceiling disappears and the room fills with copper pieces! Our heroes may end up buried and crushed by this torrent of coins!

I managed to squeeze some Clyde Caldwell in this one

I may change this so that the gremlin thinks he's real tough and hurls ridiculous insults at them. Or is that cruel?

Room V. Three vampires who can only be killed by a stake through the heart (I'm retooling them, same concept, weaker stats based on the 2e Vampyre monster). If the PCs run, the vampires trail them.

The big gimmick here is that one of them is wearing a Ring of the Vampire: "This ring is magical, and causes the wearer to turn into a vampire who, unbeknownst to his fellow delvers, must have human blood every 15 turns or he will perish". Removing the ring does not cure this. And the PC loses his/her shadow. I can just smell the hijinks here.

Room AA. This room has a "ragged starving man" who got stuck in here after being chased by some lions (true story). There's some magic statues guarding a magic sword: SUNSLAYER.

"Lords of Light!"

SUNSLAYER is an awesome epic blade (I am making it a flame tongue - appropriate, right?). But it has some drawbacks. It "renders the bearer blind in all but the dimmest of light. He'll be blind in sunlight, moonlight, torchlight, or even candlelight. He can, however, see in total darkness, in starlight, or by the light of luminous insects or moss".  And there's more. "The character who has picked up the sword cannot ever relinquish it, or it will take his soul, drive him mad, or whatever you choose to make him keep it."

That's an odd last sentence there. Make him keep it? Some players would see this as a character-ruining hindrance... luckily, I know my players and they will find this to be awesome and hilarious. For them it is character-defining, perfect for helping flesh out a new character's personality/gimmick.

There's all sorts of other cool stuff too. They can find the "infamous" badger gem. Touch the gem.. become a badger. You revert to your normal form in sunlight.

I know these kind of dungeons aren't for everybody. But I think you can appreciate some of the more clever creations, even if you wouldn't want to run them as written. There's a certain charm here. The whole thing is very lively.

This adventure pdf is a measly four dollars! Four dollars for 3 dungeon levels. You can buy it at drivethrurpg.

I'll let you know how the game goes. Thanks for reading!