Temple

A house of a god: a hall of columns, an altar, side chapels and a sacred treasury, sometimes a whole monastery around it. A living temple is full of priests, pilgrims and rules; a forgotten one is full of dust and old protections that still work. Those who come to steal, or simply to look, are judged by the god's servants, and sometimes by the god.

Light
Dim
Going
Easy

Hear it

Hazards

  • Fire-casting statue. A statue of the god's beast stands over the treasury steps. Step on the wrong flagstone and it breathes fire. 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 the plate 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 a tiny glyph; scratching it out with a sharp tool (an action) disarms the trap. Finding the plate takes a DC 15 Perception check, and an iron spike under it stops it. Stronger: 4d10 in a 9 m Cone (levels 5 to 10), 10d10 in 18 m (11 to 16), 18d10 in 36 m (17 to 20).
  • Offering box. The poor box is locked with a clever little lock. The priests knew who would try it. 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).
  • Holy ward. The sanctuary does not want everyone. Some feel a weight on their chest at the threshold; some cannot cross it at all. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: an Undead, a Fiend or anyone who has robbed this god makes a DC 14 Charisma save to enter the inner sanctuary. On a failure it cannot enter for 24 hours; on a success it enters but has Disadvantage on attack rolls there.
  • Sacrilege. Steal from a god in its own house, and its faithful will remember your face, in every town where it has a shrine. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: a creature that takes a sacred object or harms a priest here has Disadvantage on Charisma checks with the god's faithful until it makes amends (a gift worth twice the theft, or a quest). The GM may add a minor curse, lifted by Remove Curse or the high priest's pardon.

A scene

  • Temple of the Stars. Coldness slinks around your body, clasping your bones. The scent of ozone is in the air, and the trace notes of discordant piping audible. They are warnings. And promises. Corners of reality peel back as you enter the Temple of the Stars. What peers from beyond? The full generator on the blog

Adventure hooks

  1. Pilgrims come to touch a relic that cures fevers, and the temple has started selling small pieces of it. By now there should be nothing left, yet the relic is exactly the size it was last year.
  2. A thief has claimed sanctuary at the altar and cannot be touched while he stays inside. The people he robbed are camped at the door with food and patience, and the priests are running out of both.
  3. A forgotten temple’s statue weeps on the anniversary of its consecration. A village girl wants to know why, and the only one who might remember is the last priest, now a hermit who speaks to nobody.
  4. The high priest has announced a miracle for the feast day. His acolyte comes to the party in secret: the miracle runs on a hidden mechanism, and the mechanism is broken.

What may happen

  1. A line of pilgrims on their knees, moving slowly toward the altar. One of them is in disguise.
  2. A priestess in a trance speaks one sentence to the party, then remembers nothing.
  3. The priests offer a blessing for the road, for a donation. It works, for one day.
  4. A sign at the door: no word may be spoken past this point. A novice watches who obeys.
  5. A relic in a glass case: a finger bone, a scrap of cloth. People touch the glass for luck.
  6. Under the plaster of a chapel, an older painting of another god looks out.
  7. The bells ring for prayer. For the next ten minutes every priest is in the main hall.
  8. A wounded man runs in and grips the altar, crying sanctuary. Armed men stop at the door.
  9. The statue of the god weeps oil on feast days. Today is not a feast day.
  10. Two priests argue over the treasury accounts. The numbers do not add up.
  11. The temple heals the sick in a side hall, for free or for a service later. The service is never small.
  12. A stair behind the altar leads down, with a chain across it and fresh scratches on the steps.

Creatures

To bring back

Holy Water Flask, Consecrated Incense Smoke

Other sites

Dungeon, Crypt, Graveyard, Ruin, Sewer, Fortress, Mine Works, Laboratory, 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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