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DiscipleofBob
2009-11-03, 05:01 PM
I'm looking for some ideas designing a dungeon and appropriate encounters, but first a little background:

The players are a level 8 and as follows:

An aerialist Indiana Jones-style archaeologist Rogue.
A fullblade-wielding Fighter.
A half-elf bard who specialized in skills, rituals, forced movement, and seducing female NPC's.
A tiefling infernal and fey pact (due to an earlier side quest she can choose between either pact boon when it goes off) warlock.
A shifter druid focused on the wildshape aspect.

The PC's are currently going after the lieutenants of the BBEG who are scattered throughout the game world enacting various dastardly deeds.

According to the PC's, their current plan is to go to the Tiefling lands and check out what's going on there. The Tiefling lands are composed of two warring kingdoms, basically one LG and one LE that've been warring for centuries. At least until recently, when the LE kingdom started winning due to having new monstrous mercenary troops. Not like ogres and trolls, no, but mindless vaguely humanoid beings of rage and destruction.

You see, the current 'lieutenant' working in the area is a tiefling warlock named Xanthos. Xanthos is occupying several roles at once in this conflict under several different identities. Outside the kingdom, he's built a sort of international "Warlocks Anonymous" organization, where warlocks can come to get help breaking free of addiction and servitude to whatever masters they got their powers from. Xanthos takes Warlocks who've reached a certain point in their "treatment" to his personal retreat, a palace hidden away in the mountains. From there, Xanthos takes the warlocks and puts them through a ritual that turns them into powerful mindless minions purely driven by their warlock powers. Infernalocks turn into giant ogrish demons, starlocks turn into laser-shooting crystals on tripods, that kind of thing. Xanthos turns around and in a different identity, sells the troops as mindless mercenaries to the LE kingdom, and the LG kingdom is getting pretty close to buying as well.

Then, with two OTHER covers, Xanthos has wormed his way in the politics of both kingdoms using inside knowledge he gained from his arms dealer cover, until he's gotten the position of "trusted advisor" to both kings. Now that he's gotten in the good graces of either king, he's also managed to kidnap princesses of both kingdoms, blame each kidnapping on the other side, make a killing off the war profiteering, while still raising a powerful mindless army for his master, the BBEG.

The PC's, currently headed to the LE kingdom, have to discover (1) the current crisis involving both kingdoms, (2) where the new mercenary troops are coming from, (3) somehow get into the 'private chambers' of either advisor identity, (4) use the magic mirror in said advisor's room to get to Xanthos's hidden retreat palace, (5) fight their way through fanatical "recovering warlocks" defending him, and (6) fight him and his form after he's absorbed the powers of countless warlocks.

So far, the main idea is that each "wing" of Xanthos's retreat will feature a different pact of warlock as its theme. So an infernal-themed wing, fey-themed wing, etc. Any encounter/puzzle/story hook ideas would be appreciated.