Flesh Out My Insane Gnome's Castle

[StoryKeeper]

I'm in the midst of creating a one-shot adventure for my friends. The basic idea is that there's an insane gnome sorcerer/former adventurer that has retired and started building a collection of strange creatures, magical items, beautiful women, and precious pieces of art and history that strike his fancy. The player characters would be tasked with stopping the gnome and/or retrieving as many valuables as possible from him in service of one of the cities that has fallen victim to his (or rather, his hired rogue's) thievery.

The adventure is still in the early stages, but I'd like it to be appropriate for a party of 10th or lower level.

What I need are suggestions of

* Strange creatures he might like to add to his collection (the more bizarre the better) that won't be too dangerous for the PC's should they wind up fighting it/them.

* Interesting magical items that can be carried over into future adventures should they keep their characters for other games.

*Grunt-level, low-CR creatures that he might have hired as servants/basic security. My first thought was kobolds (good trap builder, like the shiny things that he could afford to give them thanks to his vast wealth attained while adventuring, have shiny scales), but then I remembered the whole gnome-kobold hatred thing. I COULD ignore that stereotype, but I'd rather not, and I'm kind of keen on keeping the gnome a gnome.

Halflings would have worked, but they're rather prone to stealing, which is not something you want in a security force tasked with guarding your rare and precious collections.

Goblins might work, but they're not the most trust-worthy creatures either, and might simply be deemed too "gross" for the eccentric gnome collector. Still, goblins are looking like the best choice I've thought of so far.

Suggestions? Questions?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

If he's an insane caster gnome, I recommend making the players trust nothing. Make illusionary pits, real pits with Walls of Force over the top, real pits with illusions over the top, floors with illusions of floors over top, and real pits with Invisible Illusions over the top. Not to mention the real pits with Shadow Evocation'd Walls of Force over the top. Then add in statues, animated statues, gargoyles, and illusionary statues. Beautiful women, succubi, old women with hats of disguise, and male elves. Anything you include needs several versions that are identical in appearance but different in level of danger/reward.

And don't forget the room with a monster for the floor, ceiling, walls, door, treasure chest in the middle, and filled with a gelatinous cube.

And an identical room 2 doors down that is the exact same

And a 3rd room that is the same, without the monsters, but the treasure chest is filled with Cursed items.

Basically, your players should be afraid of the air by the time you're through, and be dispelling anything mentioned in your description.

Edit:And don't forget to make the Gnome a Shadowcraft Mage with Invisible Spell in addition to the usual shenanigans.

[Demented]

Take something weird, then put templates on it. Templates that cannot be applied according to the rules are especially recommended.

[The Gilded Duke]

Make every floor covered by an illusionary wall. Make every wall covered by an illusionary wall. Make every ceiling covered by an illusionary wall.

On the actual walls put Explosive Runes and various other nasty things.

Go ahead and make that will save to disbelieve.
I dare you.

[StoryKeeper]

Good idea, demented. I even have a book with some interesting, unique templates that will raise a few players' eyebrows.

The ideas for defenses are good too, guys, but I'm more in need of cool magical items (read: stuff the players MIGHT be rewarded with) and monsters as well as red-shirted security guards than magical defenses.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

That's wrong. The exact text:Applies to anything. The real issue isn't even Invisible Invisibility, it's invisible Summon Monster, or Invisible Wall of Stone.

And on that note we have the best castle for this devilish little bastard, with carious invisible walls, passage ways, treasure chests, and, of course, thrones. For extra kicks, give him invisible-spell made clothing.

[TheLogman]

If he's evil, then undead are great for mid-level challenges. There are enough crazy undeads, especially in MM III that you can have a different undead for every room.

For red-shirts, you have a few options, depending on the flavor of the gnome in charge.

-Undead if he's evil and a mastermind

-Kobolds complete with traps and tricks of their own

-Constructs, they have many of the great aspects of undead, plus they can't be turned, and they fit with the gnome flavor. Add saw blades, laser cannons, whatever floats your boat.

-More gnomes. They can be illusionists as well. Or even better, have handfuls of every specialization. Players get used to disbelieving fireballs, and then they get hit with real ones. What if in addition to fake pits, fake walls, real pits, real walls, and the like, the gnomes could also CHANGE WHICH IS WHICH. Earth Shape and the like is great for this.

Magical items are interesting. Or at least they can be. I'm not sure which edition you are playing in, but here's one that should work anywhere.

A wand or staff or something that can warp reality. A Caster targets a spell he or another caster has casted as an immediate action. He burns a spell slot to make a caster level check. If he succeeds at that check, he can turn a real spell that has just been cast into an illusionary one (Your fireball is now illusionary, your healing is now illusionary, and the like), or he can turn an illusion into the real deal. It's a major artifact to be sure, but your characters are high enough level to deal with it. If the players get ahold of it, at the very least they get the ability to effectively do a cooler version of counterspelling without having the spell to counter prepared. If the players invest time in learning illusions, it could be more than that.

Maybe make the gnome's clothing transmutation-like or something. He can make himself look like a tiger one round, and then cast a spell, but then maybe his clothing lets him polymorph once per day or something, and surprise surprise, he's actually a TIGER.

[Grumman]

Rust Monster effigies. Utterly useless in a fight, but they're eccentric, and will put the fear of God into enemy fighters. 12,000 GP each.

[erikun]

Ah yes, the Gnome Castle. I actually recommended building one of these, and had several pieces of advice.

First, start with a golem, and put it in a storage room. An Iron Golem is preferable, although whatever is CR appropriate will work just as well.

Scatter several summoning traps throughout the castle, keyed to summon the golem. Every time the golem is "destroyed", they simply return to the storage room at full health, ready for the next fight. Scatter some traps that summon illusionary golems, along with some Shadow Conjuration traps that summon shadow illusion golems (just so the PCs don't know if a particular illusion is actually damaging or not). Fill the castle with suits of armor designed in the same manor as the golem, and fit them with Animate Objects traps. Throw in a few more illusionary armors of the same style, designed to attack when anyone gets near.

For extra fun, randomly place additional armors which do nothing. Also, illusionary armors which do nothing. Giggle as the PCs try to disable static permanent illusions which were never going to attack in the first place.

Random Walls of Force. These can either bisect rooms, act as floors, or even be used as windows. For extra fun, setup Wall of Force traps in random doorways designed to activate if anything gets within 10 feet.

Mechanical traps, anything from the old crossbows-in-wall to wands of fireballs. If the castle is supposed to be abandoned, then the mechanical crossbows are preferable to the expendable wands. Occasionally toss in the Wall-of-Force-if-within-10-feet in front of the traps, just to keep the players wondering.

Permanent Unseen Servants, preferable with Mending at-will, who clean up the place, reload traps, and keep everything tidy. Between those and illusions, the castle should brand new. If the PCs decide to camp out for the night, have the Unseen Servants try to carry off equipment - or characters, if they are light enough. Nothing quite like waking up on the chandelier...

[Mushroom Ninja]

Have a room full of items that look like they'd be animated (like statues) as well as some innocuous items (like flowerpots). Let the PCs enter this room prepared to fight the statues only to find that the flowerpots are the real enemies!

Also use explosive runes in unexpected places.

[Volthawk]

Take something weird, then put templates on it. Templates that cannot be applied according to the rules are especially recommended.

Yeah, like half-dragon monkey rogues.

[erikun]

I prefer Half-Water Elemental Living Extract Water Elemental creatures, myself.

Oh, and a few more ideas:

Reverse Gravity is lots of fun.

Have some doorways actually be portals, making mapping difficult. Combine the two and two parts of the party could be in the same room, except with one half walking on the "ceiling". You'll probably want a Wall of Force to keep the two "room" seperate - disintegrating the Wall of Force would probably turn off the Reverse Gravity effect, too (rather distructively, at that).

Wall of Force + illusions can be tons of fun, as you dictate what each side sees. One side could see a stone wall while the other sees a transparent window, much like those one-way mirrors. A two-story room looks normal from below, with a grant chandelier and balconies on the second floor, but enter from the second floor and it appears to be a one-floor dining room. The marble "floor" on the second story is an illusion, while everything standing on the floor is invisible to the people on the first story.

Animate Objects traps in random places throughout the castle. Nothing like walking into a study to get attacked by books, rugs, and the sofa. Between this and the Mending Unseen Servants, your players will become paranoid of anything not nailed down. :smallbiggrin:

And finally, the flavor of the place.

A gnome castle, especially a gnome wizard castle, would be full of magic and illusions. Gnome love magic, love pranks and love interesting things, so it wouldn't be unusual to find some stuff which isn't necessarily dangerous.

Candleholderss affected by Dancing Lights, so that candles lit burn in different colors.

A gem with a minor Hypnotic Pattern, capturing visitors' attention without harm.

Violins and other instruments, either animated or with unseen servants, playing a slow and calming melody.

Change these suggestions as you wish. If the gnome is a deranged necromancer, then you'll likely see skeleton butlers sweeping the hallways, or illusionary ghost floating about, or skulls on the mantlepiece singing haunting tunes when anyone enters the room.

[OracleofWuffing]

Violins and other instruments, either animated or with unseen servants, playing a slow and calming melody.
On this note, I once ran a party through a "magical" theatre, staged like a gauntlet fight. Fake walls and whatnot hid now-starving creatures, while unseen instruments played music to the occassion of whatever happened. The closing scene involved dropping a Wyvern from above, which was foreshadowed by a certain character getting drool splashed on his face.

Anyhow, the idea behind that concept was supposed to be a bit more in-depth than it turned out. Basically, I was going to have some trap doors/hidden passages that enemies would use and characters might choose to use. There was going to be an indoor thunderstorm somewhere during the "play," as well as props that moved in and out.

More or less, whatever room you end up making, when you're done making it, ask yourself, "Is there one completely nonsensical thing I should add to this room?" and the answer should always be yes. Then add two of them.

[Signmaker]

A giant maze of topiary guardians is now mandatory. Thank you for stopping by.

[Quincunx]

Delicious topiary golems fruiting with berries within easy reach of a gnome--berries from the top half are poisonous! The top half of each golem is equipped with a small saddle and there's a supply of tourney lances in the garden shed, along with grabber claws to fit onto the end of the lances. It might be worth additional pay from their employer to discover how the gnome had gotten into tall windows treated with anti-magic radii.

Illusory ceilings give the effect of a 20-foot vaulted ceiling where only 5 feet of ceiling was necessary. The gnome has to live among these illusions, after all. Don't make them too detrimental to right-height players. If you drop the ceiling, at least reward the tall ones for being prone--add in some kind of ranged-attack ambush and let them revel in the +4 to AC. While they are feeling the gnome has outsmarted himself, deploy another surprise. (Also, mind your head while polymorphing.)

Add in one room of healing, decadence, and safe haven for beautiful maidens as an apology for making the players jump at shadows, preferably right after one of them sighs and says something like "I know by now this is a bad idea, but we need to know. I disbelieve"; overwrite a trap room if necessary. Depending on the maturity level or lack thereof of your players, take one of those beautiful maidens uttering the line "gnomes are simply too small--I would need a six-pack!" and run with it.

Most of the cornucopia of nifty magic items they will pick up are, naturally, illusory. (The real version of one or two of them will turn up in later adventures with higher-level thieves who stole them from the gnome, but the prideful gnome saw no reason to relinquish his trophy.)

[Kelb_Panthera]

One idea I've been toying with is having a gnome shadowcraft mage whose entire home is made up of partially real permanent images. The stuff inside, from creatures to magic items to the furniture and decorations is all real, but every wall, floor, ceiling, door, and window is part of a permanent image. The gnome can rearrange any and every part of the structure by concentrating for a moment.

Edit: Don't forget to put an "endless staircase" in there somewhere.

[waterpenguin43]

You might like lemures as servants. If you aren't keen of the idea of devils being his handmaids, maybe drow or some evil dwarf?

[StoryKeeper]

All good ideas so far, guys, but I might have to scale down the threat of some of these challenges. After all, I don't want the players giving up due to frustration with all of the ridiculously effective traps. That said, I now have some neat ideas for my illussionist PC's when I'm not DM'ing.

Devils as servants is actually a pretty darned good idea. Isn't there an arch-devil of wealth or something? Maybe I could have some demons associated with him be serving the gnome. I just hope they aren't TOO evil for what I have in mind for this gnome (he's a rich, selfish, greedy jerk, but he isn't your sold sould and world domination type; he's basically just waaaay too into his possessions and comforts.

Dwarves might work as well, being lawful and all that. Plus, they're short enough to fit inside the gnome's place without being ridiculously over-sized.

Drow probably wouldn't work so well just because i can't see a drow hiring himself out as defensive fodder or as a servant for a gnome (or anyone really.)

P.S. If I don't go with lemurEs, I might go with exceptionally intelligent lemurs. Fear the gnome's rare-and-unquestionably-loyal marsupial army!

[Kelb_Panthera]

on the note of rediculous armies. Permanent image's AoE is more than enough to support a unit or two of troops, again partially real by way of SCM. They'd be stuck within the bounds of the spell's AoE but they could pose a very significant threat if you want the PC's sneaking in rather than storming the gates.

[Lysander]

A few item ideas:

Potions of alter self, but they only turn the drinker into a gnome version of themselves

A ring of mage hand (to reach stuff on high shelves)

A flask of create honey wine, 1/day

[Iamyourking]

Devils as servants is actually a pretty darned good idea. Isn't there an arch-devil of wealth or something? To my knowledge there is no arch-devils with such a focus. However, Mammon the Lord Regent of Minauros fits such a portfolio perfectly. The problem with that is that the gnome would rapidly find himself being cheated out of his money by Melchom and Scax, if not Mammon himself. Dispater would work alright too, although he's focused more on general benefit to one person by stepping on others than accumulating wealth through cheating it out of others.

[Arcane_Secrets]

For relatively low-powered minions, how about a small army of gargoyles modified in various ways (a lot of which involves making them look like normal statuary artwork)? One idea might be that some of them can step through mirrors and can try to drag PC's in after them.

[Lysander]

How about enchanted objects? Flying drapes, hostile chairs, an angry porcelain poodles add a surreal touch.

[Munchkin-Masher]

For all you illusion, entertainment and adventurer killing needs: The Theif King's Palace (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5749075#post5749075)

(By Afroakuma)

[BobVosh]

Use homebrewed creatures only. That way they have no chance to know what you are throwing at them. Bonus points for putting templates on them.

The Broken by Vorpal Tribble (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10905) is a great template for freaking people out.

Vorpal Tribble, Demented One have some really good weird stuff.

[wizuriel]

out of curiosity how are you making the gnome at the end? There a lot of interesting ideas here, but seems like you would need a high level wizard/ScM to pull it off?

[StoryKeeper]

The gnome will either be a sorcerer or a sorcerer with some prestige who focuses on illussions. He'll probably be somewhere between levels 10-15 depending on what level the party winds up being. I can justify having more powerful spells than he himself could cast by saying he hired someone more powerful to lay down some defensive enchantments. He's actually going to have an abjurer and diviner in his service to serve as his security experts.

[erikun]

he's basically just waaaay too into his possessions and comforts.
If he's interested in material comforts, that should probably reflect in the "mood" of the castle. Cleaning Prestidigitations all over the castle, illusions dress the party in gowns/suits depending on their gender/race, unseen servants offering them wine and cheese, and so on. I'm sure they will remember the place if then ended up fighting animated couches while wearing ballgowns and being offered refreshments throughout the battle. :smallbiggrin:

[Kelb_Panthera]

out of curiosity how are you making the gnome at the end? There a lot of interesting ideas here, but seems like you would need a high level wizard/ScM to pull it off?

Wizard 5/SCM 5 or Sorc 5/ SCM 5 isn't that high a level, and scrolls will let you cast spells beyond your level in either case.

[Demented]

I've always felt live servants to be rather more decadent. Monstrous creatures made into wretched, humble humanoids with illusions would add to the effect marvelously... As well as to their humiliation.


How about enchanted objects? Flying drapes, hostile chairs, an angry porcelain poodles add a surreal touch.

I misread that as angry porcelain noodles.

[eepop]

You need a room full of animated rubber bouncy balls. The PCs walk in and all the balls are sitting on the floor, but as soon as they touch one it sets off a chain reaction of all of them bouncing all over the place doing non-lethal damage as they bounce off the players.

[Teddy]

Make him have a terrible fashion sense. His castle should be filled with magic items on display, but make them look really ridiculous. A pink magic plate with a cute rabbit pattern, a Cloak of Charisma fashioned as a lime green train for a wedding dress, Boots of Speed looking like a pair of really ridiculous noble shoes (for example a pair of poulaines), you name it. Have people react appropriately to the PCs walking around in the most ridiculous gear you can invent (make sure that every item you put in the castle is really useful to the party, so that they will be forced to wear/carry them). Note that almost none of the gnome's minions will share his fashion sense (just let one monster in one encounter die in a heart attack caused by too hysterical laughter), but have the gnome greet them and elaborately congratulate them for their "fantastic" fashion sense (make it really over the top) and wait for the PC's reactions.