PDA

View Full Version : Collapsing tower (3.5)



msully4321
2009-12-09, 03:25 PM
In my somewhat cliche-filled previous session, my party battled a traitorous chancellor (a Wizard 5/Malconvoker 5) in his tower. When it became clear that he couldn't win, he ordered his Unseen Servant to activate the self-destruct mechanism and teleported away (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LoadBearingBoss). (It is a long standing tradition in this city that the Tower of the Chancellor collapses every 7 years).

The tower is now beginning to collapse around them. They are on floor two of a five story tower (but I am prepared to retcon it to floor five of a ten story tower or something similar if it will make things more interesting).

Most of my 6-person party wants to escape immediately, but two of the party members plan to go deeper into the tower to try to recover the chancellor's papers.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to play out the escape/exploration and make it an interesting and fun challenge. The party has 4 9th level characters and 2 8th level, but nobody who can cast Dimension Door or Teleport.

I'd like to make it such that the people trying to escape will probably succeed unless things go very badly (or they are very dumb), but will be interesting. Going deeper into the tower is a really dumb move and the players know it, so I have no qualms about making that fairly deadly. A 50% chance of survival for them (more if they are smart, less if they are dumb) seems fair to me.

The next session is also the last session I am running before we all go home for winter break, so I want things to be awesome. It's also a good time to kill characters, since the players have plenty of time to build replacements (my DM - kjones - once ran a semester finale that killed half of the party in a round (all three casters were standing in a line near an enemy with a breath weapon)).
The finale encounter of the session is probably going to be a rematch against the chancellor who has used a scroll of planar binding to bind some sort of fiend (probably a Vrock or a Bebilith), which should be pretty cool. The Chancellor was leveled up to Malconvoker 6 but will have used a lot of his spells for the day binding the fiend and making sure it agrees to his deal, which should level things out a bit.

Ideas?

msully4321
2009-12-10, 10:54 AM
I'm considering some Animated Objects to try to slow them down by tripping, grappling, blinding, etc, but I suspect they will be too weak to matter...

Ryumaru
2009-12-10, 11:27 AM
That actually does sound pretty awesome. Gives me a nice tingly feeling like when I first discovered Indiana Jones. ;D

I'd definately throw in Animated Objects; they don't need to be deadly, just keep them grabbing and wasting a turn or two maybe, while reinforcing the fact to the players that, you know... you're fighting on a slowly becoming horizontal tower. =P Add a couple of somewhat challenging traps, but nothing too complex (you've got an action packed chase scene going at this point; you don't want to be sticking around with the Rogue searching for traps, and trying to disarm them). Things like trap doors and spikes, for the whole rope swinging and jumping action. =D

Keshay
2009-12-10, 11:42 AM
Script out, room by room, round by round the effects the tower collapse are having on specific areas.

For example: Round 3, middle portion of Stairwell A collapses: DC 15 jump check to cross.
Round 10 Stairwell A further Deteriorates, DC25 Jump check to crosss

Round 5: Chamber X is filled with debris, movement halved

Round 7: Top floor collapses, rocks fall, everyone on that floor and the floor below die (or take xd# damage, save to avoid being knocked prone, must make a DC30 Serarch check to find a safe way down to the next level.)Everyone else in the tower must make a DC20 Balance check to remain standing


And so on... For things like the stairwell, figure out where your players will fall to if they fail (it might be a shortcut, or an inconvience worse than falling damage).

I did this once as the capstone to a mid-level campaign. The whole area was magic-null as a side effect of the self-destruct, so the players had to high tial it out of there the old-fashioned way. It was pretty well enjoyed, even for the the one guy who kept rolling poorly, he decided if he could not make it out, he'd make a heroic sacrifice to keep a hallway from collapsing so the others could escape... It was one of our more memorable games.

Ormagoden
2009-12-10, 11:46 AM
Whats a self destructing tower without big heavy stone doors that slowly fall sealing the heroes inside?

Falling debris is always a problem in a collapsing tower.

Are there monsters in the tower? You know they are going to try and claw their way through the players to escape :D

If they players are smart they should realize you don't outrun a train by staying on the tracks... meaning the most expedient way out is to bank left and make some kind of hole in the wall and hop out.

good luck! let us know how it goes!

Zeta Kai
2009-12-10, 12:38 PM
If they players are smart they should realize you don't outrun a train by staying on the tracks... meaning the most expedient way out is to bank left and make some kind of hole in the wall and hop out.

... In which case, it would be best if this were taking place on the 5th floor of a 10-story tower, rather than on the 2nd floor of a 5-story tower.

Fitz10019
2009-12-10, 01:25 PM
Perhaps it starts with the first floor collapsing, eliminating the most obvious exit, throwing all furniture into the air and jarring all shutters closed. Then the second floor (now the lowest) collapses 1d4 rounds later, throwing all the furnishings again, etc. The only way out is to reach the descending top. This way, them being on the second floor does not need to be changed -- they still have to go a long way.

They will need a comfortable lead on the collapse process before they'll have time to knock out a wall.

jiriku
2009-12-10, 01:33 PM
Even extended up to ten floors, your tower is much too small. An 8th-level PC can simply jump out a 5th-storey window, suck up the 5d6 falling damage, get up, and run like hell to get away from the falling debris.

msully4321
2009-12-10, 02:28 PM
Even extended up to ten floors, your tower is much too small. An 8th-level PC can simply jump out a 5th-storey window, suck up the 5d6 falling damage, get up, and run like hell to get away from the falling debris.

Which is why there aren't windows.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-10, 02:33 PM
Which is why there aren't windows.They're PCs. 3 foot stone walls are windows to them.