Into the Belly of the Beast

In the Belly of the Beast

Traps and Hazards for a party in digestion

Your party has been swallowed by a venerable and monstrous dragon of uncommon size and ferocity. With their lives on the line they must navigate their way back out to attempt to leave the belly of the beast. These hazards are best utilized with a weakened dragon entering a state of torpor after a battle, perhaps a large scale one the party participated in or it was wounded from a previous encounter. This will allow a narrative justification of some of the hazards.

To increase complexity, the GM could add encounters with symbiotic organisms or spirits within the body, though make sure to keep these encounters Easy so as not to make the hazards unmanageable. Alternatively, these hazards could be utilized piecemeal for a quicker set or expanded to make a dungeon out of the dragon’s body, perhaps using a truly colossal dragon! The “base” version of the encounters assumes a 15th level party, but guidance will be provided for scaling up to a 20th level party or down for a 10th. For best results, assume all terrain within the dragon is greater difficult terrain.

Acid Bubbles

Hazard 15

acidcomplexenvironmental

Complexity Complex
Description Your journey through the stomach of the beast has given it indigestion. A dragon’s stomach acid is far more potent and loaded with magical energies compared to that of normal creatures.

Disable DC 40 Medicine (master) or DC 45 survival (legendary) check will allow players to apply appropriate stomach easing herbs to quiet the indigestion.
Acid Reflux r Trigger A creature makes a move through the digestive system. Effect Acidic gas moves through the digestive tract. All players must make a DC 36 fortitude saving throw. The acid then is inserted into the initiative after the triggering player.

Critical Success The creature is unaffected
Success The creature is sickened 1 and takes half damage
Failure The creature is sickened 2 and takes 3d12+10 acid damage
Critical Failure The creature is sickened 2 and the damage is doubled

Routine a A wave of sickening, acidic gas moves up through the digestive tract, calling for new saves.

Scaling

For a Level 10 party, reduce the Disable DC to 32 and (expert) for Medicine as well as 36 and (master) for Survival. Reduce the saving throw to 29 and the damage to 2d12+5. Scaling up to 20 increase the Disable DC to 48 (Master) for Medicine and 51 (Legendary) for Survival. Increase the fortitude saving throw to 42 and the damage to 4d10+20. For longer, more complex gauntlets, halve all damage values or only have the routine trigger so long as the party remains in the stomach.

Involuntary Swallow

Hazard 16

complexenvironmental

Complexity Complex
Disable DC 45 (master) Medicine may disable the reflex with proper application of herbs or paralytics
Description Even while resting, the dragon’s esophagus feels the presence of things moving through it, triggering the swallowing reflex.

Swallow r Trigger A player moves in the esophagus Effect The swallowing reflex is triggered and all creatures within the esophagus must make a DC 37 Reflex or Fortitude Saving Throw (whichever is higher) with the following failure effects:

Critical Success The creature is unaffected
Success The creature is prone
Failure The creature is prone and stunned 1
Critical Failure The creature is prone, stunned 1, and pushed 30 feet towards the stomach, this is forced movement.

Routine The swallow reflex is completed and will trigger again on the first movement by a creature in the esophagus the next round.

Scaling

For a level 10 party, decrease the disable check to 36 (master) and the Saving Throw DC 30. For a level 20 party, increase the disable check to 53 and the Saving Throw DC to 44.

Gag Reflex

Hazard 15

environmental

Complexity Simple
Stealth 36
Description The dragon’s gag reflex is powerful and forceful, triggered at the top of the esophagus.
Disable DC 36 Medicine (master) or Survival (master) to disable the gag reflex or a DC 40 stealth to careful path past it.

Retch r Trigger A creature moves past the edge of the esophagus without disabling or navigating carefully past the gag reflex. Effect All creatures in the digestive tract must make a DC 36 fortitude saving throw with the following failure effects.

Critical Success As success but no damage is taken.
Success The creature is knocked prone as they grab onto a nearby fold, tooth, or flap of tissue to stabilize themselves. They take half damage from the force of the retch.
Failure The creature is knocked prone and thrown to the edge of the mouth as they hold onto a tooth for dear life. They take 6d12+30 bludgeoning damage from force.
Critical Failure The creature is forcibly ejected from the mouth and takes double damage as they are thrown to the ground with extreme force.

scaling

To scale this for a level 10 party, change the Stealth DC to 28, the medicine and survival DCs to 28 (expert), the Stealth DC to 30, the fortitude DC to 29 and the damage to 4d12+22. To scale for a level 20 party, change the Stealth DC to 44, the Medicine and Survival DCs to 44, the Stealth DC to 48, the Fortitude DC to 42, and the damage to 8d10+37.

Flaming Breath

Hazard 15

magicsimpleprimalfire

Complexity Simple
Stealth DC 35
Description The dragon begins to exhale the basis for its breath weapon giving creatures a split second to react.
Disable DC 40 (master) Nature or DC 42 (master) Arcana or Religion to redirect magic as a reaction when the breath weapon is triggered

Flaming Breath aa Flames are ejected from the dragon’s mouth and within, causing 12d8 fire damage and 2d6 persistent fire damage versus a DC 38 basic reflex save.

Reset After 4 rounds, the dragon is able to its breath weapon again if the party has not fully exited the mouth.

Adjusting for your Campaign

To scale this for a level 10 party, change the Stealth DC to 27 (expert), the Nature DC to 32, the Religion and Arcana to 34 (expert), the save DC to 30, and the damage to 9d8. To scale for a level 20 party, change the Stealth DC to 41, the Nature DC to 48 (master), the Religion and Arcana DC to 51 (legendary), the save DC to 41, and the damage to 14d8 fire damage and 2d6 persistent fire damage.
Additionally, while this assumes a Primal Dragon, this can be changed to another type of dragon easily by simply swapping the damage type to the desired dragon’s breath weapon type, then changing the low DC to the matching tradition of the dragon and the other two to the traditions not in opposition to the dragon’s (i.e. Occult opposes Primal, Divine opposes Arcane, and vice versa for both).

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