The Thousand Maws of Mordan

A small, single hill, in the middle of grassy plain fields, littered with huge stone heads partially covered in moss; the heads are both human and non-human, each of them with open maws or mouths; the scent of strong magic fills the air, and even those who aren't magic-users can catch a faint sniff; inside every maw, a descending staircase leads to a door, opening the way to a huge dungeon complex, full of dangers, monsters and treasure. However, things aren't that simple.

Adventurers reported that no two delves inside a single stone head are the same; as if they were different dungeons each time. Some of them even told of going through alternate exits, finding out they went to places far, far away from the field of stone heads. Sometimes a group goes inside a head and leaves through another, but returning to the second head leads to a different dungeon without no apparent connection to the first level. A practical consequence of this is that dungeon maps are effectively useless, but Simeon (see below) keeps buying them anyway.

Close to the field, near a river in the southeast, is the small town of Uppor, where adventurers gather between expeditions to the stone heads; indeed, many citizens are retired adventurers themselves: the mayor Ercka and the constable Orogg (and yes, they're a happy couple) were fighters during their dungeon-delving days, for example. Some notable townfolk:

• Ercka is also a merchant who sells all kinds of adventuring gear, while Orogg doubles as a smith and small-time arms dealer; Orogg is also interested in magic weapons and enchanted armor. Their big store-and-house is just near the river port, at the south part of the town.
• The old Simeon Byrutt, who insists there is a great secret behind the stone heads and the shifting dungeons, has a small library and can provide sagely advice; he buys any maps of the dungeons, and has an uncanny knack to know if a map is legitimate or a forgery. He lives in a small and crumpled house near the northernmost edge of the town.
• The cheerful but brutally honest sisters Caera and Peuba run the local inn-and-tavern, The Stubborn Badger. Rooms are expensive, but the food is great and rumours abound. It's located in front of the central plaza; locals know the place is full when tables are put on the outside.
• The mysterious acolyte Nagotla mantains a small temple to the gods and performs many rites; she also sells holy water and is interested in magic itens. Not much is known about her. Nagotla's temple is near the river, at the northeast corner of the town.
• Asdarvos is a gruff alchemist and apothecary, and dabbles in arcane magic in his spare time; he sells vials of acid and oil, herbs and potions; he also trades in scrolls and spellbooks. His place is just east of the central plaza.

d12	Rumor
1	There is an old book in Simeon's possession that talks about Mordan.
2	A large group of halflings arrived in Uppor recently; they want to build a village for themselves, somewhere in the fields.
3	A labyrinthine complex of secret tunnels connects the dungeons under the stone heads. (Partially false.)
4	A caravan of merchants going upstream stopped at the river port and built a temporary fair just outside town. Ercka isn't too happy about that.
5	Asdarvos is interested in Nagotla; too bad he's too timid to act on it. It doesn't look like she ever noticed.
6	A man disguised as a woman may touch and ride an unicorn. (Completely false.)
7	Following the river to the south, there's a well inside an old house. Teenagers like to go there for some reason.
8	There is a lair of bandits in the northwestern portion of the fields.
9	Somewhere along the river, there's a stone head partially submerged which leads to an underwater dungeon. (Partially false.)
10	Any stone head will lead you to different dungeons each time you delve into its maw, even if you go to the same head each time.
11	Orogg's latest acquisition is a powerful magic sword!
12	One of the sisters has fallen ill, and the other may close The Stubborn Badger in order to search for a cure. (Partially false.)

Back to the stone heads, the name Mordan – hence, the place being known as The Thousand Maws of Mordan – can be found inscribed in the back of the heads, and many stories were crafted to speculate who, or what, was this person or being. The heads themselves are very different from each other, but almost all of them have frozen expressions of terror. The nature of the non-human heads is also varied, some resembling known animals, monsters and other creatures, others looking like people of several ancestries, and many of them looking like nothing seen in the world before.

But there is a single stone head, at the top of the hill, with its mouth shut. Its eyes also appear to be shut, and its expression is an imposing one; this head is also bigger than the others. The impression of magic is also stronger around this head. Many in Uppor wonder if there is a way to open the head's maw, if it also has dungeons, and if they're different from all the other ones. It has been nicknamed the True Mordan's Head and the Headmaster by the townfolk.

System: in practice, the Thousand Maws of Mordan is an excuse to justify, in-universe, the use of procedurally generated random dungeons; pick one up from your favorite website, or from whatever zine or module you have around, and voilá! The nearby town of Uppor provides support as a place for player characters to rest and resupply.

d12	Wandering Encounter (Outside)
1	acolytes (1d8 priests; on a religious journey related to the stone heads)
2	an adventuring party (2d4 adventurers; roll d6: 1–2 going to a stone head, 3–4 going back to Uppor, 5 going somewhere else, 6 just passing through)
3	bandits (3d4 ruffians; they target tired and wounded adventurers carrying treasure, but flee if outnumbered)
4	dwarven scholars (1d6+2 dwarves; if 7 or more, 1d4 gnomes also accompany them; they intend to study the stone heads)
5	gargoyles (1d4; or 2d4 if near a stone head)
6	griffs (1d4; they attack any horses on sight)
7	hawks (1d6; roll d6: if 5–6 instead 1d4 giant hawks)
8	hounds (2d4)
9	panthers (1d6)
10	traders (1d8 merchants; roll d6: 1–2 going to Uppor, 3–4 leaving Uppor, 5–6 just passing through)
11	unicorns (1d6; only maidens can approach them)
12	wild horses (3d8)

When an adventuring party goes through the door at the bottom of a stone head, they're transported to a random dungeon, either somewhere far away, or even in another plane of existence! A save versus spells allow a character to notice a subtle magic effect happening around them at this moment, but only arcane spellcasters have a shot at discerning the true nature of the enchantment. Suggestion: in B/X and OSE, a Magic-User or an Elf may roll 1d20 under their character level to understand what really happened to them, but only as a last resort.

Usually, a party leaving a stone head's dungeon and entering it again means they're transported to a different dungeon, but this may not be true: inside each random dungeon there is a single enchanted object, which glows with a faint blue light when observed through Detect Magic, that acts as a "key" to a particular dungeon; if the party is carrying the key and enters the same stone head, they'll be back to the same dungeon where they found it. The key may be a minor magic item, or simply a common object carrying the mystic impression. No one in Uppor knows this!

The bigger head at the top of the hill, while initially closed, may open if a big enough number of keys (roll 1d20 and multiply the result by 5) are presented to it; the dungeons inside it are as random as the other ones, but are way more dangerous (use a high level as a parameter for the generator, or look for modules reccomended for high-level characters; in B/X and OSE, 7th or 8th levels are good suggestions). For keys, use major magic items; and only after a group re-enters (carrying the key, of course) the bigger head's dungeon, add a large circular room behind a secret and magically locked door, far away from the entrance: it's where they'll find Mordan, as well as a sumptuous treasure!

d6	Who or what is Mordan?	What is Mordan's lair?	What treasure lies there?	What Mordan wants?	What is the true nature of the stone heads?
1	an old wizard	an arcane laboratory	a powerful artifact	stronger test subjects	statues made by Mordan themself
2	an ancient dragon	a small spacecraft	shelves of books and scrolls	brave adventurers for a noble quest	the beheaded victims of the Godslayer Gorgon
3	a floating skull	a magical stone circle	an assorment of magic items	to be set free, or to go home	the last remnants of an ancient civilization
4	an alien being	a throne room	lavish furniture and tapestries	a challenge, or a duel	the result of a catastrophical magic accident
5	a hurt but recovering god	a monitoring room	piles of coins, gems and jewels	to be immortal, or to be mortal	strange objects that fell from the sky ages ago
6	a trickster	a large prison cell	the room itself	nothing, they're bored	a buried army of titanic rock soldiers

P.S.: Where to find random dungeon generators online? A small list: dizzydragon, donjon, watabou (with derikb for dungeon stocking); please feel free to suggest more!

(Note: speaking of generators, many of the townfolk's names were obtained from my Random Name Generator. It only uses six-sided dice!)