Skip to content
CharGen Icon
CreatePricing
Dungeons
Lair · Medium · Level 5 · Hard

Mnatake's Nest

Blue light crawls across a broken shell, and somewhere below it, an egg cracks.
Rooms
9
Foes
15, CR 1/4 to 5
Traps
9
Treasure
1,145 gp
123456789Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. Tide Cleft

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

Mnatake is dead, but the oni mask on its back still carries a splinter of its malice.

Wandering monsters (1d3)

  1. 1

    1d2× Lost hatchlingsCR 1

    When: A loud impact or the destruction of an egg sac draws them from the nearest chamber.A pair of young shellback turtles nose through the corridors, snapping at anything warm.
  2. 2

    Riftjaw prowlerCR 2

    When: A character spends more than ten minutes near a pool or leaves blood on the stone.A half-drowned scavenger with a ridged shell and cloudy eyes follows the scent of blood.
  3. 3

    2d4× Salt scuttlersCR 1/2

    When: A bright light is left unattended, or the party rests in the lair.Small, pale crustaceans click over the walls and gather around light sources.

Rooms

9
1

Tide Cleft

2 foes1 traptreasuresecret

What they see

Read aloud

A low cleft opens above a tide line, its walls polished smooth by waves and the passage of an enormous body. Blue light leaks through a crack in the ceiling, and a narrow seam in the east wall hides the old route into the lair.

Features

  • The entrance is slick with seawater and counts as difficult terrain for creatures moving at a fast pace.
  • A shallow tide pool reflects the chamber as it appeared before Mnatake died.

What the GM knows

Monsters

2× Rift scuttlersCR 1/4

Pale crablike scavengers with translucent shells pick at bits of egg membrane.Tactics. They flee toward if injured, then return in a larger group if the party makes noise.

Traps

Falling ShelfDC 13 bludgeoning

A loose ceiling plate drops when a creature steps on the pale stone tile beneath it.Disarm. A Wisdom (Perception) check spots the hairline cracks. Wedge the plate with a metal spike or brace the tile to prevent the fall.

Treasure

Stonecutters' Pay35 gp

A waterproof tin holds three polished agates and a small brass token stamped with a turtle shell.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

The secret door to is a fitted slab, not a hinged door. A successful Wisdom (Perception) check spots the seam beneath barnacles; it opens with a push at the lower edge.

1 door: E (secret)

The place

What it is

The lair was carved into a coastal shelf beneath the old nesting ground of Mnatake, a giant turtle whose death tore a rift through time.

Atmosphere

Salt, hot stone, and the sour smell of ruptured eggs fill the lair.

The threat

Mnatake is dead, but the oni mask on its back still carries a splinter of its malice.

History

Coastal stonecutters shaped this hollow into a nesting refuge for Mnatake, a turtle kaiju revered by the local fishing clans.

Rumors

1d4
Roll a rumor

  1. 1The tide has begun running backward around the old coastal shelf, and the fish caught there have glassy eyes.
  2. 2A dead turtle as large as a house lies somewhere beneath the cliffs, though every sailor who claims to have seen it gives a different account of the storm.
  3. 3The stonecutters built a hidden way into the cliff, but they sealed it after hearing eggs crack in an empty chamber.
  4. 4A black demon mask washed ashore once before and was gone by morning. The beach where it appeared has not had a normal tide since.

Plot hooks

3
ContainmentYoung in the SurfA string of fishing boats has vanished near the rift, and the survivors report a baby turtle large enough to crush a mast. The party must find the nest and stop the young before they reach the harbor.From: Tavi, a blunt harbor pilot whose brother is missingReward: A coastal lord's purse of 300 gp and free passage on a seaworthy vessel
RecoveryThe Mask That RemembersA shrine keeper asks the party to retrieve the oni mask before the rift widens. The mask can be brought back intact, but doing so risks carrying its temporal curse beyond the lair.From: Seshri, an elderly shrine tender who knows the old carvingsReward: A pearl charm worth 150 gp and a scroll of water breathing
InvestigationThe Tide Runs BackwardA coastwise scholar has seen a future version of the party reflected in the tide pools, standing among ruined houses. They believe the rift can be sealed only by learning how Mnatake died.From: Odu, a tide-chart maker with ink-stained handsReward: A 250 gp research stipend and a map of hidden coastal caves

Corridors

3

  • Between and

    A long groove in the stone floor is scored with parallel claw marks, then abruptly doubles back on itself as if time repeated the creature's passage.

  • Near the doors to and

    Small pools of seawater reflect the corridor as it looked moments earlier, including the shadows of creatures that are no longer there.

  • Between and

    The walls are studded with pale shell fragments. Some fragments twitch when a living creature passes, responding to the hatchlings below.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn Mnatake's Nest into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.