05/06/2026
Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!
One of the best parts of using random dungeon generators is discovering ideas you never would have come up with on your own.
That’s exactly what happened when I used the DELVE dungeon generator to create this starter dungeon for Shadowdark.
I wanted:
- a Level 1–2 dungeon
- something easy to place on a hex map
- a memorable theme
- a small footprint for quick play
- and a little weirdness
So I rolled everything using the DELVE Dungeon Generator tables from pages 27–30.
The result was:
a haunted chapel fractured by time magic.
And honestly?
That’s an incredible dungeon premise.
Step 1: Dungeon Purpose
The DELVE generator starts by determining:
- what the dungeon originally was
- and what it has become
These two rolls immediately create tension and story.
Original Purpose Roll
Roll
d6 = 6
| Roll | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 6 | Worship |
Originally, this place was:
- a temple
- chapel
- monastery
- sacred site
Immediately atmospheric.
Current Purpose Roll
Roll
d6 = 2
| Roll | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 2 | Knowledge |
Now we have:
- abandoned holy place
- forbidden research
- hidden secrets
- scholars or occultists studying something dangerous
That combination immediately suggested:
A ruined chapel where priests experimented with forbidden magic.
Excellent starter dungeon material.
Step 2: Theme and Flavor
Now we determine the dungeon’s theme and atmosphere.
This is where things became weird.
Theme Roll
Roll
d20 = 17
| Roll | Theme |
|---|---|
| 17 | Temporal (Arcane) |
Perfect.
Now the dungeon includes:
- distorted time
- repeating events
- magical anomalies
- reality glitches
Already memorable.
Flavor Rolls
Roll 1
d8 = 2
| Roll | Flavor |
|---|---|
| 2 | Haunted |
Roll 2
d8 = 7
| Roll | Flavor |
|---|---|
| 7 | Strange |
So now the dungeon is:
- haunted
- eerie
- reality-bending
- temporally unstable
At this point, the core idea practically built itself.
Final Dungeon Concept
The Hollow Saint
Long ago, priests attempted to preserve their dying saint using forbidden temporal magic.
The ritual failed catastrophically.
Now the ruined chapel exists partially unstuck in time:
- ghostly priests endlessly repeat old rituals
- doors open into different moments
- voices echo before they are spoken
- and the saint beneath the crypt still “lives” between seconds
Locals avoid the ruins because:
- chapel bells ring at impossible hours
- travelers lose time
- some return older
- others never return at all
Perfect Shadowdark energy.
Step 3: Dungeon Size
Size Roll
Roll
d6 = 1
| Roll | Size |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tiny |
Perfect for:
- a starter dungeon
- a first session
- a quick adventure site
Area Roll
Tiny dungeons use:
1d4 + 1 rooms
Rolls
- d4 = 4
Total:
5 rooms
Compact.
Focused.
Easy to run.
Entrance Roll
Tiny dungeons use:
1d2 entrances
Roll
- d2 = 2
So we get:
- one main entrance
- one hidden entrance
Always a great addition for exploration.
Step 4: Rolling the Rooms
Now we determine the actual dungeon areas.
Area Rolls
Room 1
Roll
d20 = 15
| Roll | Area |
|---|---|
| 15 | Chapel |
Naturally this became:
The Broken Chapel
Perfect entrance room.
Room 2
Roll
d20 = 18
| Roll | Area |
|---|---|
| 18 | Library |
This became:
The Frozen Archive
Room 3
Roll
d20 = 11
| Roll | Area |
|---|---|
| 11 | Parlor |
This evolved into:
The Waiting Room
Which became one of the creepiest rooms in the dungeon.
Room 4
Roll
d20 = 17
| Roll | Area |
|---|---|
| 17 | Crypt |
Obviously:
The Saint’s Crypt
Room 5
For the final chamber, I manually chose:
The Fractured Reliquary
I wanted:
- a memorable climax
- strong visual identity
- a weird boss arena
Step 5: Connections
Connection Rolls
| Room | Roll | Connections |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Rooms 2 & 3 |
| 2 | 1 | Room 4 |
| 3 | 1 | Room 4 |
| 4 | 1 | Room 5 |
Then I added:
- a secret staircase
- a hidden route
- an alternate entrance
Even tiny dungeons benefit enormously from:
- loops
- shortcuts
- alternate paths
They make the dungeon feel real instead of linear.
Final Dungeon Layout
[5] Fractured Reliquary
|
[4] Saint's Crypt
/ \
/ \
[2] Frozen Archive [3] Waiting Room
\\ //
\\ //
[1] Broken Chapel
Secret Features
- Hidden staircase from Room 2 to Room 5
- Collapsed grave shaft entrance into Room 3
Step 6: Stocking the Dungeon
Now the dungeon gets:
- hazards
- encounters
- discoveries
- treasure
This is where the dungeon becomes playable.
Room 1: The Broken Chapel
Challenge Roll
Trap/Hazard
Using the Arcane/Temporal theme:
Aeon Surge
Time skips unpredictably in the room.
Effects include:
- torch flames jumping forward
- sounds cutting strangely
- players briefly disappearing from view
An excellent introductory weirdness moment.
Discovery Roll
Information
I rolled:
mural
So the chapel walls depict:
- priests performing temporal rituals
- a saint suspended in chains of light
This immediately delivers:
- lore
- atmosphere
- foreshadowing
without exposition dumps.
Room 2: The Frozen Archive
Challenge Roll
Encounter
For a Level 1–2 dungeon:
2 Magic Mephits
But flavored as:
- animated parchment spirits
- fragments of magical time
- whispering scraps of living memory
The reflavoring matters more than the stat block.
Discovery Roll
Treasure
Treasure found:
- silver candleholders worth 18 gp
- journal entry reading:“The saint still breathes between moments.”
That single line carries the entire dungeon tone.
Room 3: The Waiting Room
This became my favorite room.
Concept
Ghostly priests endlessly repeat:
- serving tea
- arranging chairs
- waiting for someone who never arrives
The loop resets every few minutes.
Players can:
- interact peacefully
- interrupt the cycle
- accidentally become trapped in the repeating moment
No combat required.
Just atmosphere and tension.
Room 4: The Saint’s Crypt
Challenge Roll
Big Encounter
I used:
- 3 animated skeletons
- unstable magical pulses
The room itself becomes dangerous because:
- candles relight themselves
- doors reopen after being shut
- time fractures during combat
This creates dynamic encounters without needing complicated mechanics.
Room 5: The Fractured Reliquary
Boss Encounter
The dungeon boss became:
The Hollow Saint
A partially preserved undead priest trapped between moments in time.
For a Level 1–2 party:
- dangerous
- weird
- survivable
Possible abilities:
- briefly disappears
- repeats attacks
- rewinds movement
- speaks in overlapping voices
This feels memorable without overwhelming new players.
Treasure Rolls
I kept treasure restrained for low levels.
Final Treasure
- Potion of Mirrors
- 65 gp in ceremonial silver
- relic necklace
- map fragment leading to another monastery ruin
Enough reward to feel meaningful without breaking progression.
Why This Dungeon Works
This dungeon works because it is:
- compact
- strongly themed
- easy to understand
- weird in memorable ways
It teaches players:
- careful exploration
- interacting with the environment
- observation
- experimentation
- caution
without becoming overwhelming.
Most importantly:
Every room reinforces the same core idea.
That cohesion makes the dungeon memorable.
Final Thoughts
What I love most about the DELVE generator is that it creates:
- structure
- inspiration
- thematic cohesion
- and relationships between ideas
instead of simply producing disconnected random rooms.
With just a handful of rolls, this dungeon became:
- a haunted temporal chapel
- a mystery wrapped around forbidden magic
- a weird low-level exploration site
- and a memorable boss encounter for new players
That’s an incredible amount of value from a lightweight procedural system.
This dungeon could absolutely benefit from being mapped out in a tool like Dungeon Scrawl for online play. A proper digital map with layered lighting, hidden passages, and atmospheric details would make the strange temporal effects shine during a virtual session.
At the same time, the simple connection sketch included here is more than enough for my DM notebook during in-person games. Honestly, some of my favorite sessions have started with nothing more than a rough room graph and a few evocative notes.
If I were developing this dungeon further, I would also spend time:
- adding more mundane details to each room
- expanding environmental storytelling
- and layering in additional lore
For example:
- Who exactly was The Hollow Saint?
- What was their real name before the failed ritual?
- Which god did they serve?
- Was this an ancient forgotten deity of time, memory, prophecy, or fate?
- Did the priests knowingly doom themselves, or were they deceived by something outside reality?
Even a few small answers to questions like these can make the dungeon feel dramatically more alive to players.
I’d also likely expand:
- journals
- carvings
- repeating ghost conversations
- religious iconography
- strange relics
- and evidence of temporal instability
Those little details are what transform a dungeon from:
“a place with monsters”
into:
“a place with history.”
And honestly, that’s where Shadowdark shines.
The combination of fast procedural generation and improvisational worldbuilding makes it incredibly easy to create locations that feel dangerous, mysterious, and worth exploring.
I would happily drop The Hollow Saint into nearly any Shadowdark campaign.
Keep on gaming!