SETTING THESAURUS

DUNGEON (SPECULATIVE)



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HELPFUL TIP:

Settings should always be chosen with care. Consider the emotion you want your viewpoint character to feel and how setting choices, weather elements, and symbolism might build a specific mood in the scene, create tension and conflict, or even raise the stakes.
SIGHTS:
Small, cramped cells dark with shadow
Stone walls (wet with damp, cracked, scabbed with mildew, etc.) 
Dirty straw scattered across the floor
Chains fixed to walls
Rats, centipedes, and other vermin
Torches flickering in iron sconces
Iron bars
Feces in heaps on the floor or piling up in buckets
An oily smoke haze sliding through narrow passages
Clothing scraps littering the floor
Prisoners wearing dirty rags soaked in blood and sweat
Barrels of fetid water
Blood pools channeling along the flagstone
Weapons and torture instruments (brands, knives, hooks, whips, barbed tools, hammers, spikes, pincers, etc.)
Guards and torture practitioners
Cracked and seeping walls
Black mold
Pools of muddy water on the stone floor
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SOUNDS:
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SMELLS:
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TASTES:
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TEXTURES AND SENSATIONS:
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POSSIBLE SOURCES OF CONFLICT:
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PEOPLE COMMONLY FOUND IN THIS SETTING:
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SETTING DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE:
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TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES USED:
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DESCRIPTIVE EFFECTS:
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