We’re going to start big. In the first room, I rolled on the Temple: Novelties table. I rolled a 6: “A giant-sized throne, empty or supporting a Gargantuan inanimate skeleton.” We’re going to go for the skeleton here. What kind of creature was this in life? A giant? Given that the dungeon is a temple, is it something more extra-planar than a giant, such as a fiend or celestial? We don’t need to figure it out quite yet, but let’s tentatively describe the skeleton as possessing furled, skeletal wings, just to keep our demonic and angelic options open. Furthermore, at the skeleton’s feet lies a massive, rusted sword, far too heavy for the adventurers to lift.
I’m tempted to squeeze some sort of discovery into this room: maybe a treasure. Flipping over to the Temple: Minor Treasures table, I roll a 4: “Jeweled holy symbol, gem, or bag of coins worth an amount appropriate to the tier.” At level 5, that’s an item worth 1,000 gp. I think that if the characters investigate the skeleton, they might spot a tarnished ring loose on its bony finger. The ring is big enough to be a bracelet on a Medium creature! It bears a black jewel carved with a holy symbol to some god. What god? Maybe not one that the adventurers immediately recognize.
Let’s move onto room two of the dungeon. So far it’s been a safe and profitable dungeon crawl, so let’s raise the tension a bit with an encounter. On the Temple: Escalations table, I roll a 3, “Denizens: a faction that predates and is hostile to the local overlord (roll or choose from Set Pieces)”. There are multiple options to choose from for five different level bands. At level 5, our options are “2 or 3 mummies, skeletal champions, or walking statues”. If you’re using Level Up’s Monstrous Menagerie, you’ve got three encounter options to choose from. If you’re using the Monster Manual as your primary monster book, you can run a mummy encounter. (On every encounter table, every roll offers options drawn from both the Monster Manual and the Monstrous Menagerie—supplemented by Dungeon Delver’s Guide monsters—so you’ll have a playable encounter no matter which book you’re using.) I have access to the Monstrous Menagerie, so I’ll choose two walking statues to inhabit this room. To match the gigantic skeleton in room 1, and to deepen the sense of mystery, we’ll say that these statues have (nonfunctional) stone wings.
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