Everyone expects a dungeon to smell musty and damp. But they do not always have to be so. Some dungeons may be in a desert, or in a frozen tundra, and the smells would be very different.
When I am laying out the description of a dungeon room, I like to include a smell as part of that description. It’s a great way to introduce or foreshadow future events/encounters, for dropping hints about the use or history of a chamber, or as a clue to a puzzle.
The following d30 chart is designed to get your imagination going…
- Under the mustiness, something faintly smells like cloves
- Moldering wood
- Faint tang of ammonia
- A hint of cinnamon
- Sharp, metallic taste and smell
- A minty, herbal aroma
- The earthy smell of cumin
- A peppery scent that makes your eyes water
- The smell of wet stone, after a rain
- The smell of hot iron
- The acrid smell of burnt fat
- A hint of woodsmoke
- Is that a perfume? Like jasmine?
- The smell of cut grass
- A putrid, low-tide smell
- The charnel reek of fresh blood
- The stink of animal waste
- The warm aroma of old leather
- The odor of old sweat and fear
- Just a whiff of smoky peat
- The fragrance of roasted onions
- A bouquet of wildflowers
- The stench of unwashed bodies
- The funk of a wet dog
- The smell of herbal incense
- The powdery aroma of chalk
- The funk of drying fish
- The stink of burnt hair
- The foulness of a rotting carcass
- The spicy tingle of squid ink
