Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, third revision

“That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.”

- Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Your player characters could also use the lands around the Caves of Chaos ravine as farmland. Yet, the Chaos magic of the caves and surrounding area that deforms the established vegetation might make any food grown there dangerous to eat.  At least until the Chaos temple is destroyed.  While marijuana grown in soil infused with chaos magic might be twice as addictive as normal marijuana.  Good aligned player characters should burn, while standing upwind from, these chaos magic saturated marijuana plants.

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

― Abraham Lincoln

Another idea adding extra options to your campaign:  The humanoid inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos have little and poor quality food.  Most of the caves’ inhabitants would be malnourished and sick from the decayed food that they eat resulting in them being both visibly underweight and physically sick.

I see these humanoids as individuals, with different degrees of commitment to their beliefs, along with having the same basic needs as the PCs.  These humanoids would get sick and tired of being kept in unheated caves, underfed, and not doing anything that would improve their lives.  Thus, they would have negative 1 to their hit points.  They would also have negative 1 to hit and negative 1 to damage.

In my campaign, the party leader is a Bard as well as a follower of the Goddess Marianne.  This Goddess is the personification of liberty, equality, fraternity, and reason, as well as the Goddess of Liberty.  The Bard made several successful Charisma (Persuasion) checks, while explaining to the inhabitants several benefits of being on the good side.  After all, Maslow's hierarchy of needs motivates these caves’ inhabitants as much as they motivate the PCs.  Half of the smarter inhabitants were persuaded to change allegiances to the good side.  This also gives my campaign the aspect of intellectual transformation in NPCs that many campaigns lack.

Note:  As a Game Master, designing your home created campaigns, you should ask how your settlements, regardless of alignment, get their clean water and food.  If a settlement’s clean water and food is blocked by enemies; it is up to your player characters and their NPC allies to restore these vital resources to the residents as fast as possible.  But, before that happens, the PCs party and the settlement administrators will determine the payment for the party for restoring their supplies of clean water and food.