Laboratory

A wizard's tower or workshop: a library, a study, a room of glass and furnaces, and somewhere a summoning circle. Everything smells of smoke and strange salts. A party comes for books, reagents or the wizard, and fears the guardians, the protections and the experiments that got loose.

Light
Dim
Going
Slow

Hear it

Hazards

  • Fire-casting statue. A bronze statue of the wizard himself guards the stair, and breathes fire on the uninvited. D&D 5e: A pressure plate makes the statue breathe a 4.5 m (15 ft) Cone of magical fire whenever a creature first steps on it on a turn or starts its turn there: DC 15 Dexterity save, 2d10 Fire damage, half on a success. Detect Magic shows Evocation on the statue; a Search action within 1.5 m (5 ft) and a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check find its glyph, a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check reads it as fire, and scratching it out (an action) disarms the trap. A DC 15 Perception check finds the plate, and an iron spike under it stops it.
  • Spellbook chest. The chest that holds the spellbook has a lock no thief would trust. D&D 5e: Opening the lock with anything but its key springs a needle: DC 11 Constitution save, or 1d10 Poison damage and the Poisoned condition for 1 hour; half damage only on a success. A Knock spell avoids it. A Search action and a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check find it, and an action with a DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check disarms it (a failure sets it off). For a powerful wizard: 4d10 and DC 15, or 10d10 and DC 17.
  • Reagent fumes. A shelf of jars, some cracked. Knock one over and the room fills with coloured smoke. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: a broken jar fills a 3 m (10 ft) radius with fumes for 1 minute, Lightly Obscured. Each creature inside makes a DC 13 Constitution save at the start of its turn or has the Poisoned condition until the end of its next turn. Roll a d6 for the colour of trouble: on a 6 the fumes are also flammable.
  • Stray magic. Years of spells have soaked into the walls. Casting here is like lighting a fire in a hayloft. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: when a creature casts a spell of level 1 or higher in the tower, roll a d20. On a 1, the spell also does something else the GM picks: a harmless flash, a 1d6 Force jolt to the caster, an object that comes alive for a minute, or a door that locks itself.

Adventure hooks

  1. A wizard’s apprentice has broken her master’s scrying sphere and must replace it before he returns in three days. The only other one in the region belongs to his worst rival.
  2. The wizard is dead and his tower is sealed. The heirs want the treasure, the creditors want the books, and the guardian at the door opens only to someone who can answer its question.
  3. A homunculus has escaped from its maker and taken work in town as a clerk. It is excellent at the job, its employer will not part with it, and the wizard wants it back before it learns to forge his signature.
  4. Jars of specimens line the shelves of an abandoned workshop. One of them holds a man the party knows, and he is blinking.

What may happen

  1. A book on the lectern clears its throat and asks who sent the party.
  2. A tiny winged servant watches from a shelf, then flies off to tell its master.
  3. A summoning circle on the floor, broken on one side by a scuff. Whatever was in it is not anymore.
  4. A frightened apprentice hides under a table. Her master went into the cellar three days ago and has not come back.
  5. Notes in a cramped hand describe an experiment day by day. The last page is scorched.
  6. Jars of specimens line the wall: a two-headed rat, an eye in brine, a seed that pulses.
  7. A tall mirror shows the room as it was a hundred years ago, with someone else working at the bench.
  8. The tower stairs have one more turn going down than going up.
  9. A flask still bubbles over a blue flame that needs no fuel.
  10. A drawer of labelled reagents, all useful, some rare. The labels are in a code.
  11. A guardian of clay at the library door asks for the password, and waits with great patience.
  12. A star chart on the ceiling turns slowly with the real sky. One star is marked in red.
  13. A cat with too-knowing eyes walks ahead of the party, stepping only on certain flagstones.
  14. A broom sweeps the floor by itself and carefully sweeps away the party’s footprints behind them.
  15. The library catalogue is a box of cards that sorts itself when a question is asked aloud.
  16. A bundle of letters from a rival wizard: threats at first, then pleas, then nothing.
  17. A bottle on a high shelf holds a little thundercloud that rumbles and flashes when anyone comes near.
  18. A bowl of black water shows another room somewhere, where a woman sits reading by a window.
  19. An elderly scholar with a letter of permission has come to borrow one book. She needs an escort past the guardians.
  20. A glass room of strange plants: a vine that turns toward warmth, flowers that close at the sound of voices.
  21. A book chained to its shelf strains against the chain as people pass.
  22. A half-made clay figure lies on a table, the words on its brow half rubbed out.
  23. Three doors, labelled in the wizard’s hand: Not now. Not yet. Never.
  24. A carter arrives with crates of sulphur, quicksilver and live frogs. He has not been paid in months and wants someone to sign.
  25. A quill on the desk writes by itself, taking down every word spoken in the room.

Creatures

Other sites

Dungeon, Crypt, Graveyard, Ruin, Sewer, Fortress, Mine Works, Temple, City

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

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