The Four Laws of Salt, Bone, and Lantern Fire

1. The Law of Hunger

No item, spell, class feature, background feature, or similar ability can create safe nutrition from nothing inside the dungeon.

Conjured food becomes ash, wax, fungus, salt, or gray sludge. Conjured water becomes brackish, mineral-dead, or spiritually contaminated.

2. The Law of the Closed Door

Magic cannot open a route from the dungeon to the outside world.

Teleportation, planar travel, extradimensional doors, recall magic, and similar effects may fail, redirect deeper into the dungeon, or connect only to other places inside the dungeon.

3. The Law of the Watching Dark

Magical shelters work, but they are not invisible to the dungeon.

Tiny Hut, Private Sanctum, Temple of the Gods, and similar effects create magical “noise” that attracts attention.

4. The Law of True Rest

Dungeon exhaustion, malnutrition, spiritual hunger, and deep dread cannot be removed by ordinary restoration magic.

They require true rest, safe food, clean water, warmth, and psychological security.

General Note

Spells, features, and items are not outright banned. However, within the dungeon, some may fail, produce unintended consequences, or function at a reduced effect.

Players may still attempt creative uses, but the dungeon’s Four Laws take precedence.

In-Game Reason

This dungeon is a place where creation and escape magic are metabolized by the dungeon.

Examples of Limited Use

Prestidigitation: can flavor awful monster meat, but not make it nutritious.

Purify Food and Drink: can remove ordinary rot from scavenged meat, but not supernatural taint.

Detect Poison and Disease: can identify dangerous organs.

Lesser Restoration: can treat normal food poisoning.

Create Bonfire / Control Flames: can cook.

Fabricate: can make cookware, traps, cages, water filters, and drying racks.

Wall of Stone / Stone Shape: can make a defensible camp, but not a perfect one.

Divination: can point toward resources, sometimes, but not make them free.

Spells Affected by the Dungeon

Note: Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

Food and Water

Goodberry, Create Food and Water, Create or Destroy Water, Heroes’ Feast, Purify Food and Drink, Wish.

Poison, Disease, and Contamination

Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Protection from Poison, Heal, Mass Heal, Heroes’ Feast, Purify Food and Drink, Detect Poison and Disease.

Shelter and Safe Rest

Tiny Hut, Rope Trick, Magnificent Mansion, Demiplane, Temple of the Gods, Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum, Guards and Wards, Wall of Force, Forcecage, Wall of Stone, Stone Shape, Move Earth.

Teleportation, Escape, and Shortcut Magic

Teleport, Teleportation Circle, Plane Shift, Gate, Word of Recall, Transport via Plants, Tree Stride, Etherealness, Astral Projection, Arcane Gate, Dimension Door, Misty Step, Far Step, Scatter, Thunder Step, Passwall.

Divination, Scouting, and Resource Finding

Find the Path, Commune, Divination, Contact Other Plane, Commune with Nature, Locate Object, Locate Creature, Scrying, Arcane Eye, Clairvoyance.

Exhaustion, Sleep, and Long-Term Recovery

Greater Restoration, Lesser Restoration, Heal, Mass Heal, Regenerate, Wish.

Items Affected by the Dungeon

Food and Water Items

Decanter of Endless Water, Alchemy Jug, Bag of Beans, Heward’s Handy Spice Pouch, Everfull Mug, Everlasting Rations, Ring of Sustenance, and any homebrew item that creates food, water, nourishment, or removes the need to eat or drink.

Shelter and Extradimensional Items

Rod of Security, Daern’s Instant Fortress, Folding Boat, and any item that creates a safe room, extradimensional space, pocket shelter, or bypasses normal camping danger.

Escape and Travel Items

Helm of Teleportation, Amulet of the Planes, Cubic Gate, Cape of the Mountebank, Boots of Teleportation, scrolls of Teleport, Plane Shift, Word of Recall, Gate, or similar escape magic.

Poison, Disease, and Survival Protection Items

Periapt of Health, Periapt of Proof Against Poison, Necklace of Adaptation, Ring of Free Action, Ring of Regeneration, Ioun Stone of Sustenance, and any item that grants immunity to poison, disease, starvation, thirst, suffocation, exhaustion, or environmental hardship.

Storage and Supply Abuse Items

Bag of Holding, Portable Hole, Handy Haversack, Chest of Preserving, Quiver of Ehlonna, and any item used to carry unrealistic amounts of food, water, camping supplies, or preserved monster meat.

Scouting and Dungeon-Bypass Items

Crystal Ball, Eyes of the Eagle, Helm of Telepathy, Medallion of Thoughts, Gem of Seeing, Robe of Eyes, Lantern of Revealing, Wand of Enemy Detection, Wand of Secrets, and any item that reveals large portions of the dungeon, locates resources, or bypasses exploration pressure.

Class Features and Background Features Affected by the Dungeon

Food, Water, and Foraging

Outlander’s Wanderer feature, Ranger Natural Explorer, Druid Wild Shape used for easy foraging, any feature that automatically finds food and water, and any subclass feature that creates nourishment or bypasses hunger or thirst.

Travel and Navigation

Ranger exploration features, teleportation subclass abilities, planar travel abilities, tree or plant travel abilities, automatic direction-finding features, and any feature that bypasses getting lost or navigating dungeon levels.

Rest and Exhaustion

Features that remove exhaustion, prevent sleep, bypass the need for rest, remove starvation or thirst penalties, or allow endless forced marches without consequence.