Castles. Fantasy RPGs gots tons of ’em. They’re just everywhere. You can build your own using Campaign Builder: Castles & Crowns. Then, kick it up a notch with the Demented Monarch’s Castle table!
Roll one d8 for each column, and combine the Room, Something Interesting, and Something Weird results with your imagination to create something unique for your campaign.
Have fun with the results you get. If a result seems incongruous, ask yourself why it could be like that and embrace the strangeness. Any bolded monster names are references to see the monster’s stats in the Monster Vault.
Demented Monarch’s Castle
d8 | Room | Something Interesting | Something Weird |
1 | Alchemy lab | The walls are soft and squishy. | A small dragon stands on the ceiling. |
2 | Trash room | Seven lanterns blink. | Mirror elementals attack from each corner. |
3 | Aviary | The air smells like citrus fruit. | The interior door handle is a mimic. |
4 | Observatory | The floor is covered in coarse fur. | One large sack for each PC hangs from the ceiling. |
5 | Music room | Touching the electric floor makes metal weapons magnetic. | A large thundercloud hovers on the ceiling. |
6 | Garderobe (bathroom) | Everyone in the room looks like a dark shadow. | A servant offering fried cockatrice wings greets you. |
7 | Laundry room | Everyone in the room looks like the previous person who entered. | A flesh golem sits at a desk with a pen and many journals. |
8 | Winery | The walls have a portrait of each PC. | First PC in the room explodes and reforms behind the last PC. |
Room
The alchemy lab contains cases filled with chemicals and a large work table with burners and powder grinders. A creature who mixes chemicals can create a useful potion on a roll of a natural 20 on a 1d20 roll.
The trash room contains garbage and remnants of furniture. Roll percentile dice to determine how full it is. Then roll a d6. On a 6, a random magic item is stashed among the garbage. A successful DC 15 INT (Investigation) check turns it up.
The aviary houses 2d10 birds of all sizes. The birds fly freely about the room, only a single small cage hangs from the ceiling in the corner of the room.
The observatory has three small stools, a writing desk with a journal, and a large telescope mounted to a stand. The telescope points out the window.
The music room contains a large, black harpsichord which fills most of the space. On the harpsichord is a lute, a set of hand bells, a small drum, and a bugle. A successful DC 15 Charisma (Performance) skill check by at least three different creatures using the instruments simultaneously heals 1d8 damage to every creature in the room. Once used, this effect cannot be used again until the following dawn.
The garderobe contains a chamber pot, a bowl with soap and water, and several towels hanging from hooks on the walls.
Four ropes hang across the laundry room with clothes pins on them. Giant tunics hang from the line. A large bowl in the corner has soap and brushes in it.
The winery has a small press in it, including a few bottles and corks, and a barrel of grapes.
Something Interesting
The walls are soft and squishy in this room. Handfuls of the wall material can be removed with a DC 12 Strength (Athletics) skill check. Each handful of wall is similar in consistency to a sea sponge. If the chemistry lab is here, any chemical applied to a wall partially melts it.
On the floor of this room, seven lanterns blink. The room alternates between bright light and complete darkness.
The air smells like citrus fruit here, but there’s no evidence it’s ever contained fruit of any kind, unless this is the winery. In that case, the grapes are actually tiny lemons.
The floor is covered in coarse fur in this room. If this is the laundry room, the fur is soaking wet.
Touching the electric floor makes metal weapons magnetic. If a PC strikes a creature in metal armor, it deals no damage and the weapon sticks to the armor. You can free it with a successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) skill check.
Everyone in the room looks like a dark shadow. Only outlines and edges of creatures are discernable without truesight. If this is the observatory, anything viewed through the telescope also looks like a dark shadow.
Everyone in the room looks like the previous person who entered from the PC group. Only creatures with truesight can see a being’s true identity. If this is the laundry room, all the clothes hanging on the ropes fit the last person who entered the room.
The walls have a portrait of each PC. Each painting also features the thing most cherished by that PC.
Something Weird
A dragon stands on the ceiling. The dragon can be any color with any stats, but is the size of a pony. The gravity in this room affects the dragon in the opposite way as everyone else. If this is the aviary, the dragon is talking to the birds. If this is the winery, the dragon is eating the last of the grapes.
Mirror elementals attack from each corner. These elementals have the stats of any elemental you choose, but their attacks are light-based and deal radiant damage. If this is the trash room, the elementals have cover and advantage on Stealth checks.
The interior door handle is a mimic. When leaving the room, anyone touching the door handle is immediately attacked by a mimic appearing as the door handle. If this is the garderobe, the handle has a complex lock, which the mimic latches shut when no one is looking.
One large sack for each PC hangs from the ceiling. These sacks radiate magic as a bag of holding would, but are actually mimics. All attack when any sack is touched. If this is the laundry room, all the mimics are dead, drowned in soap.
A thundercloud hovers on the ceiling. The dark cloud shoots a lightning bolt in a random direction two rounds after anyone enters the room. Afterward, it only rumbles with thunder. If this is the observatory, the cloud attacks with the moonbeam spell instead of lightning bolt.
A servant offering fried cockatrice wings greets you. The wings taste gamey but are otherwise normal food. If this is the aviary, the servant is in a heated argument with the birds, although neither understands the other.
A flesh golem sits at a desk with a pen and many journals. It is tallying expenses and income as an accountant might. If the PCs can persuade it, the golem can reveal the contents of a few of the other rooms in the castle. If attacked, its quill pen acts as a dagger of venom. If this is the music room, the golem making its accounting notes on sheet music.
The first PC in the room explodes and reforms behind the last PC. The PC that exploded takes no damage, and is functionally teleported to the end of the marching order. If this room is the chemistry lab, each time a PC explodes it leaves behind a tiny duplicate which has the stats of an imp.
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