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Elvenoutrider
2010-04-01, 12:27 PM
My fellow gamers, Ive run into a bit of writers block and need a bit of help. I performed the classic Dm mistake of assuming my players would stay on track, and they didnt, and instead skipped ahead to a point in my campaign I hadnt finished writing yet. Ive got most of it worked out except for the dungeon crawl at the end.

Long story short, they are a bout to land on an island ithat is actually an unconscious piece of an elder god. The end result of this adventure will be them entering the island and crawling through the God's body to retrieve a piece of an artifact from a tribe of Avolakia (MM2)

Basically IM trying to theme the dungeon around crawling through the body of a monster. I have planned out a stomach themed room, but beyond that I dont have anything worked out

If anyone has any ideas for traps, encounters, or a good place to look for inspiration it would really help me out,

THe party level by the time they enter the dungeon will be between 6 and 8 and will be at least 8 players in the party, so no one needs to pull any punches.

Adrayll
2010-04-01, 12:34 PM
Take a good long look at a diagram of basic anatomy. Depending on the scale, you can have the veins a secret passages, or you can have the things like intestines be the halls and such. There's not a ton of "rooms" so it's not gonna be a terribly long crawl at that scale. However, if the halls are the veins' you've got an excellent template, traveling through the organs. I suggest the "boss room" the head.

reptilecobra13
2010-04-01, 12:35 PM
If they go into his head, have them fight mental projections of themselves, a la DBZ when they fight inside of Majin Buu.

Erom
2010-04-01, 12:35 PM
There was the elemental plane of flesh posted at one point over in homebrew. Might be useful to you.

Nerve clusters could be lightning based traps on intelligent monsters in their own rights...

Doing damage to the environment could result in "immune system" type responses.

An encounter in a respiratory area could have alternating strong winds in two directions.

Binks
2010-04-01, 12:35 PM
Odd though it might sound you could look at some stuff from Bionicle for inspiration since the universe is pretty much an elder god there.

Shape it like a person? - http://bionicle.wikia.com/wiki/Matoran_Universe
Design of the Core room like a heart? - http://bionicle.wikia.com/wiki/Universe_Core
Lots of energy style traps like circulation? (flows of energy that pass through to clean out an area)
White blood cell-like defenders?
Base some of the stuff in the core off Energized Protodermis? - http://bionicle.wikia.com/wiki/Energized_Protodermis (basically just magic liquid-y energy that causes transformations in everything that touches it)

Just throwing out a few ideas. Sounds like a pretty awesome dungeon, good luck.

The Dark Fiddler
2010-04-01, 12:37 PM
I haven't played it yet myself, but checking out Bowser's Inside Story (DS) might give you some ideas. Or not.

reptilecobra13
2010-04-01, 12:40 PM
Non-Euclidean rooms! It's an elder god, after all. Even internally, he is chaos.

SilverClawShift
2010-04-01, 12:51 PM
Well, since elder gods by definition wouldn't work like humans (or any biological lifeform we're familiar with really) you kind of have free run to make a body-horror dungeon that works however you say it works.

entire 'rooms' could be lung sacs, contracting and expanding and threatening to absorb anyone who gets too close to the 'walls' and drag them into what passes for the things bloodstream. More so, every passageway even close to the lung rooms would experience a rythmic pumping of air too and from it as the god inhales and exhales. If anything agitates the god (like, say, the scraping of its insides by eight strange little germs with sword) the breathing could pick up in intensity, sucking the players down a hallway for a few turns, only to reverse and leave them fighting against the wind to go the same direction.

What passes for the creatures immune system would try to expel the little pests inside it (the pests being your players of course). Whatever you put in the place of white blood cells would be constantly hunting the players through every section of the body.
If they're inhside too long, the gods body might induce a 'fever' to try to push them out. The temperature slowly rising past unbearable levels and into life-threatening levels.

That's not even touching on the question of what happens to people who die and are absorbed/digested by an elder god.
I'm thinking "I have no mouth, and I must scream". You die in an elder god, and there is no afterlife for you. No raising or resurrections. Just your consciousness, stuck forever in the walls and floors, part of a silent screaming chorus with no hope of redemption or freedom.

Has anyone been here before?

If you've spent countless centuries, millenia, eons serving as one of some elder gods bladders for negative psychic energy it's disposing of, would you have the mental fortitude to help the next person who stumbles down the same dead end path you died in, or would you lash out in any way possible?

There's a lot you can do with this idea...

Abaddon87
2010-04-01, 01:01 PM
I would say that Gears of War 2 had a level just like what your doing, only it was a giant worm they were inside. Some great ideas if you can check it out.

Basically, things like symbiotic organisms living inside the body that pose as a "field hazard". Throat and stomach posed crushing traps and acid traps, while you could also throw in some spike pit traps and such. Drowning would also be a problem should the party enter an area full of fluids or if they damage a blood vein etc.

cheezewizz2000
2010-04-01, 01:09 PM
Lymphocites as re-fluffed gelatinous cubes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ooze.htm#gelatinousCube)?

Antibodies as Hell Wasp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/swarm.htm#hellwaspSwarm) swarms?

Giant black puddings (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ooze.htm#blackPudding) as bacteria?

Enzymes as digesters (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/digester.htm)?

And your erithrocites are just commoners, trudging around this never ending one-way system that is his blood stream. Kinda like these guys at 40 seconds in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2h1jUpqzcc). (Warning, nostalgia alert).

Eldan
2010-04-01, 01:21 PM
Hmm. What makes or breaks this thing is probably the creepy descriptions. Waving seas of tentacle-like hairs. Undefinable pink and greenish masses. Hundred meter tall pulsating membranes with veins as thick as a man's arm.

Also, take some inspiration from nature. How about this:

Little known fact, but elder gods are distantly related to oysters. When something with sharp edges pokes their insides (i.e. the players try to hack their way through the walls), they encase it in mother of pearl, then spit it out.

Sinfire Titan
2010-04-01, 01:36 PM
LoZ:OoT has one of these. You can steal the map for it. Considering the game is nearly 10 years old, it shouldn't be easily recognized unless your players played it recently.

hamishspence
2010-04-01, 01:38 PM
4E (Open Grave) did this with a Primordial- the Blood Lord, original creator of blood fiends. Though it was dead, its body was still very dangerous.

Lysander
2010-04-01, 01:50 PM
Isn't there a demiplane called Neth the Living Plane that's one immense creature? You can get ideas from that maybe.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-01, 01:51 PM
Wow. This gives the term 'spelunking' a whole new meaning.

Eldan
2010-04-01, 02:01 PM
Isn't there a demiplane called Neth the Living Plane that's one immense creature? You can get ideas from that maybe.

Right! I forgot Neth! For 3rd edition, it's in the Manual of the Planes.

Hal
2010-04-01, 04:30 PM
Shortly before 4E was released, WOTC put a bunch of their 3.5 modules online for free. One called "The Essence of Evil" is exactly what you're looking for.

I'm not sure if it's available anymore. If you can find it, you should note that it's tuned for high level adventurers, but there should be plenty of ideas you can scavenge from it.

MickJay
2010-04-01, 04:58 PM
For some inspiration, you might want to check out the old Quest for Glory, part 4, rpg/adventure hybrid by Sierra.

during the endgame, the protagonist needs to perform rituals to awaken to life a huge demon, whose body became petrified and looks, from inside, like a series of cavern chambers. The game could be an inspiration for some puzzles and possibly traps, you could check out some walkthrough for details

Coidzor
2010-04-02, 02:20 AM
^: Quest for Glory link in case you wanna just see it as it's protraying in the Let Us PLay

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/qfg/Update%2071/index.html


The Magic School Bus. If you can watch any of those episodes, there's two where they go in a kid's body. Good inspiration.

Also, other hazards they face in other episodes can be good idears too.

...Magic Schoolbus DnD Adventure, anyone?

reptilecobra13
2010-04-02, 02:24 AM
...Magic Schoolbus DnD Adventure, anyone?

Hell yeah!

Comet
2010-04-02, 06:45 AM
A fun piece of fiction on the subject (http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/features/expedition.htm)

It's linked to Yahtzee's Chzo mythos and as such might be a bit confusing to those unfamiliar with the setting. Also contains a fair bit of horror and gore.
But hey, they literally go adventuring inside the titular cosmic horror in this one.

The point is to make the "anatomy" decidedly non-human. Just go wild with the design, then add a fleshy design to every room. Play up the surreal aspect, make the players feel like they don't belong in there.

Muz
2010-04-02, 04:29 PM
For some inspiration, you might want to check out the old Quest for Glory, part 4, rpg/adventure hybrid by Sierra.

during the endgame, the protagonist needs to perform rituals to awaken to life a huge demon, whose body became petrified and looks, from inside, like a series of cavern chambers. The game could be an inspiration for some puzzles and possibly traps, you could check out some walkthrough for details

I'm currently trying to adapt this to my own game right now. :smallbiggrin: (And plan to mine this thread for ideas. Mwahaha ha ha. And so forth.) :smallwink:

randomhero00
2010-04-02, 04:38 PM
Sounds like a cool theme but they're gods...why do they have organs? Gods have infinite or near infinite power. I personally would have gone with a rotting dimension for them to "crawl" through. Unless you meant titan or avatar of a god.

Either way you go, Darren Shan's Demonata series has some pretty awesome descriptors for this stuff. Its supposed to be for teens/kids (and the plot is simpler to reflect such) but the gore and violence in his books are beyond most adult books.

Asbestos
2010-04-03, 12:06 AM
Shortly before 4E was released, WOTC put a bunch of their 3.5 modules online for free. One called "The Essence of Evil" is exactly what you're looking for.

I'm not sure if it's available anymore. If you can find it, you should note that it's tuned for high level adventurers, but there should be plenty of ideas you can scavenge from it.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/duad/20071221

All the old stuff is still at the WotC website, just a pain to find if you don't know what you're looking for.

krossbow
2010-04-03, 01:11 AM
Journey through its *%&. It will scar them for life.

Admiral Squish
2010-04-03, 01:25 AM
I would use oozes of all sorts in this. But what I'd do specifically, is this: Mapa out the whole body. Have a set number of oozes inside the body for the immune system. Depending on how nicely the players treat the body as they travel through it, the slower the oozes congregate to their position. If the players are hacking off nerves and scraping swords across walls, then they can call the whole body's oozes down on them. If they don't do much, they might just get the immediate area.

Nerve clusters could be lightning -based encounters of their own, depending on their arrangement, and how often they go off. Like, have a room with a half-nozen nodes in it. Every round, roll 2d6. The first d6 is the node the lightning originates from. The second is the one it goes to. Whoever is between them? Ow. The numbers could go up depending on the size of the room. D12s. D20s. Possibly more than a pair at a time in the bigger rooms?

Also, I'd go with a Non-human for the layout. Like, a lizard or something.

Coidzor
2010-04-03, 01:38 AM
Someone on homebrew created a Plane of Flesh or something. Not sure if this was here, Brilliant Gameologists, or WOTC.

Basically a giant planar macro-organism in the same way Mechanus is a giant planar clock.

Had repurposed oozes and such to represent antibodies and such.

Another source of potential inspiration/place to crib some notes from.

Runestar
2010-04-03, 01:47 AM
reminds me of the old fighting fantasy book "Riddling Reaver". The part where you trudge through the dungeon to look for the pendulum of fate. :smallbiggrin:

Asbestos
2010-04-03, 01:48 AM
No offense, folks, but the forums have a search function... Thusly, I give you, the Elemental Plane of Flesh

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53869


Ick.

hamishspence
2010-04-03, 08:03 AM
reminds me of the old fighting fantasy book "Riddling Reaver". The part where you trudge through the dungeon to look for the pendulum of fate. :smallbiggrin:

I was thinking more of the Fighting Fantasy book Night Dragon- mountain in the shape of a dragon's head- the mouth region is heavily trapped with fire traps, the upper brain region has a nasty magical creature that looks like a giant pyramidical ooze, and the monster of the book's name is in the main brain.

dota600
2010-04-03, 09:12 AM
I do not want to end in the crotch area.

My character will go insane after fighting egg or sperm cells

AmberVael
2010-04-03, 09:25 AM
People keep assuming this Elder God will be remotely natural in its biology. Cells? Antibodies? Veins? Lungs? Elder Gods need none of this!

Instead of muscles, give it space and reality folding organs. It moves by destroying physics.

Instead of veins, give it channels that pump liquid fear.

Rather than a heart, give it an organic fusion reactor.

Seriously. It'd better not just be a giant space squid.

Elvenoutrider
2010-04-03, 02:45 PM
Thanks for all the help guys this dungeon is shaping up to be awesome.