Dungeon Help?

[Lestrange]

I'm trying to spice up this dungeon I've designed with either some new rooms or scenery that players can interact with. The place is a tower built into the mountains by a cult of kobolds who served a powerful red wyrm. However, the dragon was slain around fifty years ago and most of the kobolds dispersed. Now the lair has crumbled a bit, though a few old loyalists remain and new tenants have moved in.

So far, I have a swimming pool enchanted to look like a pile of treasure, a feast hall with signs of use, a meditation path to follow if they want to receive the blessing of the old dragon, and a mad Crypt Thing who hosts a trivia contest with dungeon denizens.
What are some other ideas for clues, cool scenery, or non-combat encounters? The players are here to rescue some kidnapped people, so eventually they might have to deal with other prisoners.
If you have some clever traps and puzzles that's good too but I want to make this an interesting dungeon to explore.

[bean illus]

How about a recreational charm spell? Perhaps on the meditation walk; beside the river is an outdoor recreational space for swimmers. Upon this space is an enchantment that makes the players enjoy their outdoor recreation more than they ever have before.

Make it addictive, so they have a compulsion to return whenever they are alone. Maybe alignment stuff ... everyone enjoys the charm, but XX alignment is immune to the addiction?

A perfectly safe encounter, that only has the potential to stall the players for a certain amount of time, yet could be woven into the backstory and/or forestory. Perhaps it's original purpose was to control followers, and round up slaves?

Anyway, i tried.

[Pugwampy]

Dnd 2004 basic game had a magic mirror with a pretty girl that chatted to the players and gave them advice about the dungeon . I think the mod implied she was a ghost .
It was also a cheap booby trap where she invited some player to join her in the mirror and that player was never seen again.
I always thought that was one of the most awesome ideas added to a dungeon.


I myself changed this little scenario into girl is a fairy queen and the mirror was a portal to her realm .

[Bucky]

It's nice for plausibility if you have dungeon features that fill an obvious need.

Plumbing's a classic - in your case, they can overflow a wyrm-sized bathtub, or drain or dive in it to retrieve something from the bottom.

Any good tower can use a freight elevator. Of course, the party shouldn't be able to summon it right away to skip the lower floors; they need to unblock the shaft at several points in the middle.

Gardens are fun when they've been left to grow wild for decades, especially if they were enchanted to begin with. You can, for example, have fruit that spoils quickly when picked but acts like a potion when eaten; possession of such a fruit justifies the garden's existence.

And so on.