30 Minute Dungeon Delve 16: Look Spiders Are Cool Okay?

Idea: Castle in the woods and its just absolutely full of spiders, big and small. Also some spider-folk and spider themed traps.

Hook: There are some ruins of a castle in the nearby forest, reconstructed partially and held together with spider web. Nobody knows what the original name of the place is, but now it is just known as the Venom Fortress. There are rumors of great treasure within, if you can survive the spiders...

Key:

1. The room is thick with web, covering everything like sheets. There is a chest in the corner with a shiny spider-shaped latch. (The latch is actually just a large venomous spider, which will bite if anyone attempts to open the chest. Within the chest is a large quantity of gold coins.)

2. A giant exoskeleton of a spider rests in the corner, the hilt of a golden sword visible in its mouth, having been plunged into its head. A mummified corpse lays nearby. (If the golden sword is pulled, the exoskeleton suddenly becomes animated, piloted by swarms of small spiders like a mechsuit. The mummified corpse nearby will also animate in a similar fashion. Both of these entities will attack any intruders, the spider colonies within being desperate for food. The sword in the dead spider’s head is very expensive, though not very practical due to being made from gold.)

3. Rows of beds indicate this was a barracks. There are weapon racks on the wall as well, though the weapons are all long rusted and worthless. (If one looks up, they will see dozens of skeletons encased in sacks of web attached to the ceiling. Most of the skeletons appear to be dressed in decaying armor.)

4. The floor, walls, and ceiling are covered in elaborate patterns of web. A couple of stone slabs have been hoisted up onto the ceiling and are being held there with web. (Some of the web is set up to act as a pressure plate. If stepped on, a rudimentary pulley system of web drops slabs of rock onto the offending intruder.)

5. The wall looks recently repaired, with sticky web used instead of mortar. There is a large stained glass window depicting a holy symbol, similarly repaired, allowing light to filter into the room. (If one roots around the web covered floor, they can find holy books, symbols, and some bones.)

6. A woman wearing a loose fitting robe of spider silk prays in the corner to a statue of a spider-goddess. (She will continue to pray unless interrupted with conversation. Her name is Willow, and she is a devotee of Arachne, goddess of spiders. She has made a pilgrimage to Venom Fortress to pray for good hunting and trapping this season for her village. She is not hostile, and has no special knowledge of this place, and may be willing to help care for anyone who is wounded. She has some medicinal herbs she brought with her for the pilgrimage.)

7. The room is covered with web, and within the webs are treasures of various kinds, including pottery, jewelry, and artwork. However, descending down from the ceiling comes a gigantic spider, preparing to attack. (If the spider is killed, it will twitch and squirm before a giant worm explodes out of its abdomen and attacks the party.)

8. A vast pit fills the room, leading miles and miles into the Earth. Faint clacking can be heard from below. (If a torch or similar object is tossed down, its light will briefly illuminate the walls of the pit, revealing thousands of silk-wrapped corpses and giant spiders, some with human-like faces and limbs, leading down to the core of the planet. These creatures are not hostile, and will not leave the pit.)

9. Tapestries of web hang from the walls, showing scenes of giant spiders on the hunt for prey, usually in the form of humanoids. (The tapestries seem to tell some sort of myth, one unheard of by human scholars but perhaps contained in the genetic memory of spiders. It seems to involve some sort of time period before (Or after, its difficult to tell just from the tapestries) humanity is the dominant species, when arachnids and other arthropods rule the Earth.)

10. Some spider people dwell here, wrapping up deer in web. One of them wields a staff tipped with a humanoid skull, wrapped in web. This one appears to be the leader, wearing armor made from wood and web, while the other spider-folk are either naked or dressed in rags. (The staff allows anyone wielding it to turn into a giant spider and back once per day, the spider people attack on sight.)