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View Full Version : Dear Diary: A DM's ask for some assistance



Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-25, 10:00 AM
Dear Diary: I woke up angry today and I want my PC's to pay for it with their lives! I want blood and tears, I want to make them careful not to #$%& me off. I want to be feared!

Now, I want some help to make these guys miserable for this week's run. I'm running an Eberron campaign, we are in Sharn, and I have an expedition into the Cogs and planing to run into a Mad Artificer's little workshop, with a nearly completed creation forge, and no, it is not Merrix's, so yes. I would love to see some traps, and other nasty things. Personally, I'm seeing gnomish buzz saws, machine arms, conveyor belts. As a boss, I'm seeing a half mad Artificer, Human female, and for minions, what else but Warforged.

But I am open for suggestions, feel free to add ideas, cause that is what I am posting for. So any help would be nice.

Angelmaker
2010-02-25, 10:04 AM
Dear Diary: I woke up angry today and I want my PC's to pay for it with their lives! I want blood and tears, I want to make them careful not to #$%& me off. I want to be feared!


Dear Owner of this diary.

What is it, actually, your players did to you? Did you simply woke up , felt like having a bad day and wanting your players to pay for it? Why are you so cruel? Or did they actually do anything pun-pun like to deserve a little well-aimed wrath?

Please enlighten this little, innocent diary.

Lucas Pitta
2010-02-25, 10:07 AM
three words: Pack, rust, monster.
:smallwink:

Tyndmyr
2010-02-25, 10:16 AM
three words: Pack, rust, monster. Dragon
:smallwink:

Fixed that for you. :smallwink:

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-25, 10:27 AM
Dear Owner of this diary.

What is it, actually, your players did to you? Did you simply woke up , felt like having a bad day and wanting your players to pay for it? Why are you so cruel? Or did they actually do anything pun-pun like to deserve a little well-aimed wrath?

Please enlighten this little, innocent diary.

Completely understandable diary. I have a group of adventurers that are generally good. However, the last game ran all over the place, and in no real direction that I wanted it to go. Also, a certain NE cleric who fancies illicit drugs and tends to have issues playing his class. Also, there is the fact that all of them are complaining that I am not presenting them with enough of a challenge. So, I wanted to be a bit sadistic, in a sense.

slyfox99
2010-02-25, 10:43 AM
The bit about "Not enough of a challenge" is understandable. That complaint might make me a bit sadistic, too. If you want to mess with them without killing them, the rust monster is an outstanding idea. Goodbye magic swords, etc... Hello debris....

If you are feeling meaner than that, how about mind flayers possessing them? Or slaads implanting baby slaads in them, something all horrible and "Aliens?"

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-25, 10:53 AM
The bit about "Not enough of a challenge" is understandable. That complaint might make me a bit sadistic, too. If you want to mess with them without killing them, the rust monster is an outstanding idea. Goodbye magic swords, etc... Hello debris....

If you are feeling meaner than that, how about mind flayers possessing them? Or slaads implanting baby slaads in them, something all horrible and "Aliens?"

Oooooo, That sounds great!
But might I inquire, are there any ideas for some mean traps that you would find in an artificer's workshop?

Ormagoden
2010-02-25, 11:39 AM
I've got a better idea
torture the hell out of them any way you want and then shake the snow globe (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllJustADream).

Or

just do it all over again (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GroundhogDayLoop)

That's classic stuff right there, especially when combined with a grueling session.

Or you could just do like me and use two words instead of three:

Illithid-Monk

Seatbelt
2010-02-25, 11:46 AM
Run them through a meat grinder in a dream sequence. Have them wake up, go about their normal adventures, only have it be oddly similar to the previous nightmare. Butcher them again. Have them wake up (again) captured by the BBEG/Illithids/something that would be interested in experimenting on humans.


You got to have fun murdering them as only the DM can, and then they get to take revenge on something, which focuses the anger away from you.

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-25, 01:12 PM
Ooooh, I really like the groundhog day issue.

Would it be perfectly appropriate to give the Cleric, and others (but mostly the stoner cleric) sanity checks of DC 15?

Seatbelt
2010-02-25, 02:14 PM
Only if everyone else has to make the same sanity check.

Just_Ice
2010-02-25, 03:33 PM
Drill-arm warforged everywhere.

Also, traps that teleport people into walls, during a fight with traps that shoot fire and arrows.

Also: whenever someone purchases rations, it must turn out to be their enemies merely disguised as rations.

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-25, 04:22 PM
Drill-arm warforged everywhere.

Also, traps that teleport people into walls, during a fight with traps that shoot fire and arrows.

Also: whenever someone purchases rations, it must turn out to be their enemies merely disguised as rations.

Oh that sounds horrible. I LOVE IT!

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-02-25, 04:37 PM
Ya wanna give people fits?

"You come to a six-way intersection in the hallways"

The first person who goes through? No problem. They set it. The next person who enters the center hex? Roll 1d6 in secret to see which hallway they actually ended up in. Repeat for rest of party. THEN tell them "Hey, you seem to be missing some people here..."

Then have traps release the minions while they are playing Musical Teleporter trying to get back together again.

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-25, 04:53 PM
Ya wanna give people fits?

"You come to a six-way intersection in the hallways"

The first person who goes through? No problem. They set it. The next person who enters the center hex? Roll 1d6 in secret to see which hallway they actually ended up in. Repeat for rest of party. THEN tell them "Hey, you seem to be missing some people here..."

Then have traps release the minions while they are playing Musical Teleporter trying to get back together again.

Oh, that sounds fun

I love it!

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-02-25, 05:01 PM
"As the party enters the room, the door behind them slams shut. There is no door handle, and the door appears to be made of adamantine, and airtight. At the same time, the other door similarly has an adamantine door slam shut. The party then notices small holes lining the upper edge of the walls with a yellowish crust having formed on them.

A clock face begins moving counter-clockwise, starting at 10. Every round, it moves down one number. It has a button below it.

Pressing the button will reset the clock-face."

If the adamantine doors are broken, gas enters the room. However, if the clock counts down to 0, the doors open up without incident!

Volkov
2010-02-25, 05:03 PM
Throw a Great Wyrm Rust dragon at them if you have the dracononomicon and play 3.5e, alternatively, use one of these. (http://dungeons.wikia.com/index.php?title=Bloodthirster_of_Khorne_%283.5e_Mo nster%29&oldid=53462) It's still only for 3.5e players.

Seatbelt
2010-02-25, 06:33 PM
"As the party enters the room, the door behind them slams shut. There is no door handle, and the door appears to be made of adamantine, and airtight. At the same time, the other door similarly has an adamantine door slam shut. The party then notices small holes lining the upper edge of the walls with a yellowish crust having formed on them.

A clock face begins moving counter-clockwise, starting at 10. Every round, it moves down one number. It has a button below it.

Pressing the button will reset the clock-face."

If the adamantine doors are broken, gas enters the room. However, if the clock counts down to 0, the doors open up without incident!


My DM did that to us once. A room with a door and an elaborate puzzle that hurt us each time we did.. well, anything really. Nobody bothered to see if the door was actually locked orn ot.

Dragero
2010-02-25, 06:36 PM
three words: Hoard, rust, dragon.
:smallwink:

Fixed it better!!!

Sinfire Titan
2010-02-25, 07:51 PM
three two words: Pack, rust, monster. Adamantine Horror.


Fixed that for you. :smallwink:

Fixed it better.


Or Skurids...

slyfox99
2010-02-25, 08:28 PM
I was watching Superhero Squad this afternoon and Doctor Doom (surely the ULTIMATE artificer) had a machine that was generation a black hole in his lair... Would that work for you?

Angelmaker
2010-02-26, 05:30 AM
Completely understandable diary. I have a group of adventurers that are generally good. However, the last game ran all over the place, and in no real direction that I wanted it to go. Also, a certain NE cleric who fancies illicit drugs and tends to have issues playing his class. Also, there is the fact that all of them are complaining that I am not presenting them with enough of a challenge. So, I wanted to be a bit sadistic, in a sense.

Ok, challenges have been presented enough.

I, personally, recommend to have a look at:
http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm

it is fun to read, but in special, I want you to have a look at
The mimic
The lurker above
The trapper
The stunjelly

Build the room of doom which just looks like an ordinary room until the doom goes on. :)

IŽd advise to stay away from the Rust stuff, it simply annoys, but does not challenge.

Manga Shoggoth
2010-02-26, 08:12 AM
Whilst several people have suggested "pack, rust monster" (and variations), I feel that the best variation would be:

Rust monster pack.

After all, if one is good, the lots must be better.

Angelmaker
2010-02-26, 08:27 AM
I could do a whole thread on those two articles...

Feel free to do so. :smallbiggrin: It be surely an interesting read.

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-26, 01:44 PM
I was watching Superhero Squad this afternoon and Doctor Doom (surely the ULTIMATE artificer) had a machine that was generation a black hole in his lair... Would that work for you?

Oh, I saw that episode, that would be nice! Though I think Merrix would make something like that. I have an interesting idea for the Artificer's evil creation. A warforged, minus all the negative modifiers, replica of a character we had in the party for a bit. Not only does it violate the treaty of Thronehold.

But I'll keep the black hole generator in mind.

jiriku
2010-02-26, 01:51 PM
Put them in a room that is an inescapable trap (like a floor slowly opening over a pit full of acid), with a button or lever plainly visible at the end of a short, narrow hallway.

But there are unbreakable spears set horizontally dead center in the hallway, preventing the characters from getting to the buttons without impaling themselves. WIS and STR checks for a character to drag himself along the shafts, taking damage the whole way. (You might choose to have the spears shoot out of the far wall when the character going for the shut-off gets two feet into the passage.)

Watch your characters waste time arguing about who will go into the obviously trapped hallway. Marvel at the bravery and self-sacrifice of the character who pulls himself along the deadly spears, killing himself to save his compatriots. Thrill to the excitement of a dying character racing against time (and his own falling HP) to get to the lever before the floor completely disappears, or he dies before he gets to the switch.

Mage hand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mageHand.htm)says hello.

Guy-Nightbeast
2010-02-26, 01:56 PM
Ok, challenges have been presented enough.

I, personally, recommend to have a look at:
http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm

it is fun to read, but in special, I want you to have a look at
The mimic
The lurker above
The trapper
The stunjelly

Build the room of doom which just looks like an ordinary room until the doom goes on. :)

IŽd advise to stay away from the Rust stuff, it simply annoys, but does not challenge.

Oh lord, there is humor abounding in this thread and I love it.

cheezewizz2000
2010-02-26, 02:00 PM
Sealed room that fills with sand.

My favourite one: An extra temporal prison with solid adamantine walls and door, and a magic lock that re-sets if anyone tries to pick it. The kicker? Mundane drop hinges. The door can be lifted off if they work together. That'll teach them to bicker and not ask you for details about the rooms they're in.