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Dungeons
Cave · Medium · Medium

The Bite-Cave

The first thing you notice is the bone chime above the passage, clicking though there is no wind.
Rooms
12
Foes
29, CR 1/8 to 2
Traps
13
Treasure
534 gp
123456789101112Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. The Mouth

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

At the deepest end, the kobold chief Kesh keeps a young cave drake chained beside the old mine's locking wheel.

Wandering monsters (1d3)

  1. 1

    1d4 + 1× Gutter RatsCR 1/4

    When: They emerge when food is opened, blood is spilled, or a party rests noisily.A loose pack of pale dire rats, their whiskers stained blue by mineral water.
  2. 2

    1d4× Warren RunnersCR 1/8

    When: They patrol the corridors after the bell in is rung or a trap is triggered.Kobold runners carrying slings and alarm whistles, moving in pairs between the sentry rooms.
  3. 3

    Blueback LizardCR 1/2

    When: It prowls near rooms 5 and 8 when creatures disturb the stream or leave fresh meat.A starving cave lizard with a mineral crust along its spine, snapping at anything that blocks its route to the spring.

Rooms

12
1

The Mouth

1 traptreasuresecret

What they see

Read aloud

A natural cave mouth opens into a square vestibule, its floor worn smooth by generations of feet and paws. The only obvious route east has a battered wooden door, and faint tapping carries from beyond it.

Features

  • A low stone ledge offers cover near the entrance.
  • A soot-blackened warning carving is almost hidden by moss.

What the GM knows

Traps

Bone NeedleDC 12 piercing

A gut-cord tripline snaps a sharpened bone dart from a wall crack at the first creature through the eastern passage.Disarm. A character who finds the cord can sever it safely; a careful search of the crack reveals the dart spring and allows it to be wedged.

Treasure

Dry Flint Kit5 gp

A weatherproof tinderbox tucked into a crevice, still usable.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

The warning carving reads, in a rough local hand, 'Keep your fingers from the third tooth.' The tripline in the connecting passage is easy to miss while crossing quickly.

5 doors: S (secret), N (normal), W (normal), E (locked), W (normal)

The place

What it is

The Bite-Cave is a worked network of limestone chambers expanded by kobolds into a defensive warren.

Atmosphere

Cold mineral damp beads on the walls, mixing with rat musk, old smoke, and the sour reek of kobold cookfires.

The threat

At the deepest end, the kobold chief Kesh keeps a young cave drake chained beside the old mine's locking wheel.

History

A mining clan first cut these chambers to reach a vein of blue limestone, then turned the best-dressed rooms into a waystation and record vault.

Rumors

1d4
Roll a rumor

  1. 1The cave's old warning says to keep your fingers from the third tooth, and the kobolds have carved teeth above every door.
  2. 2A miner swears the rat shrines are empty at noon, when the beasts crowd around a hidden spring.
  3. 3Travelers hear tapping beneath the road after heavy rain, as if someone is working a pick in the dark.
  4. 4A survivor claims the chief keeps a chained monster that can smell fear through stone.

Plot hooks

3
RescueThe Missing SurveyorA mining surveyor has gone missing after following a trail of blue stone chips to the cave entrance. The party is hired to find the surveyor and recover the marked survey slate.From: Eda Seki, a practical quarry agentReward: Payment of 75 gp, plus the surveyor's map of the local limestone tunnels
InvestigationTeeth in the CellarRat swarms have begun pouring from cracks near a nearby hamlet. Their unusual size and blue-stained teeth point to the lower caves, where a clutch may be feeding on something unnatural.From: Haru Vela, a village healerReward: A healer's kit, 50 gp, and free care for injured characters
RetrievalThe Three WordsAn antiquarian wants the records from , especially the words that open the old lock. The party must retrieve them before the kobolds destroy the shelves to keep their routes secret.From: Toma Iriarte, a careful book dealerReward: A 100 gp fee and a signed letter of introduction to a regional archive

Corridors

3

  • Passage between and

    A tripline of gut cord runs ankle-high between two cracked stalagmites. It rattles a hanging cluster of bone chips if disturbed, alerting creatures in rooms 1 and 2.

  • Passage between and

    Tiny claw marks and a trail of rat droppings follow a narrow gutter in the floor. The gutter conceals a pressure plate that drops a stone grille across the passage.

  • Passage between and

    A thin stream runs beneath a natural stone lip; several scales and fresh blood flecks suggest something large has recently dragged prey through it.

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