Hawkings
2011-07-14, 12:25 AM
Okay so I’m a relatively new DM that’s been running a campaign for a few months now but I’m only decent at combat and haven’t had much experience with making dungeons, I’m mostly a social NPC and roaming the city and fields sort of adventure DM, dungeon crawling is something I’ve rarely done as a player and even less as a DM.
Still I’m running my players through Xorvintaal, the dragon great game in Monster Manual V, and they’re up against the exarchs of a blue dragolich who specialized in undead and ghost type monsters. This isn’t the problem, I’m making a dungeon full of illusions and traps in order to ‘test’ the players wit and creativity, but the dungeon I made is perhaps too over the top and I’d appreciate some feedback on how to do it right.
The players are level 8 going on 9 and I have 5 of the buggers; the group consists of a barbarian, samurai, ranger, sorcerer, rogue.
I used some examples I got from a few different websites for ideas:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154363&page=2
And http://www.dungeonmastering.com/campaigns-adventures/clever-dd-traps
My DM teacher tends to heavily house rule and make things up to fit the story, I prefer to keep things as to the book as much as possible, I disliked when my previous DMs arbitrarily did things without any grounds and I’d prefer not to do the same, so if I have to change or remove a room or two that’s fine, if the CR is through the roof I’m also okay with shrinking it.
So here’s the setup:
(A1) First room is the raging silver fire trap, maybe tone the damage down, essentially there’s a protective circle in the center of the room, and everything else gets hit by a fire.
(A2)Room to the right is an endless hallway illusion with a treasure chest at the end, not sure of the DC on something like this.
(B1) Room straight ahead from the first is an empty room with three doors;
(B2) Right is a refreshments room with tea, snacks and a bathroom, it also has the “Variant of the spyglass trap - Peepshow of Doom” where if they keep spending 10 gold and watching a crank movie it’ll hit flesh to stone on one them, the cure is in a vending machine worth 10k gold, why so much is because dragons are greedy and it’s supposed to make them torn between curing a team mate or trying to go on without him; also the bathroom has an arrow trap in the toilet.
(B3)The room on the left is a tipping floor that slides based on who’s balancing it out on which end, the lure is treasure on either side of the room; if they fall they end up in an underground river that takes them to the dungeon entrance, not sure how much damage a river would do to them.
(C1) Straight from B1 is a trap room that shuts and locks both doors and sets a count-down timer with 5 minutes on it; the button resets the clock but when it runs down to 0 it unlocks both doors.
(E1) The next room is a hall of statues, they do nothing but be creepy.
(E2) Right from that is a room with a solitary weeping angel statue, it’ll move when they’re not looking and occasionally look scary, this is a Doctor Who reference and I know some of my players have watched it, I’m thinking it’s an illusion that responds correctly if destroyed, or maybe an animated object that is repaired, in either case it does nothing but follow them around and be creepy, right out of this room is back to E1 and more statues, suddenly the connection between the rooms is scary.
(E3) The left room has a barbed gate separating off a giant hoard of treasure, if they search they’ll find a button that releases a key-ring full of keys, all of which are fake and none open the gate. Assuming they get past the gate (probably breaking it, the barbarian has high strength) the hoard is a trick as well since the entire thing of gold, diamonds and golden items are all magically altered to look like gold, but are actually common rocks and clay cups, the real treasures are all on the side looking like common useless items like Gauntlet of rust, a sustaining spoon, a candle of truth. I might even toss a bag of devouring that looks like a BoH type 4 just to be a jerk to a greedy player I have mentioned in a previous post who tends to steal all the gold from the group, and the look on his face when he realizes he put an entire hoard of treasure in a bag he can never retrieve it from would be priceless… too much? Okay. If they get to the hoard it’ll set off a pressure plate and knock out gas will be released. Now this is where it gets a bit tricky on suggestion of my DM mentor, he suggested that I make this like a puzzle in Zelda that if they’re knocked unconscious or otherwise killed by the illusion nature of the dungeon, they’re teleported to the entrance minus an item, not sure how this can be done without massively complex spell combinations, considering it’s a dragolich I can see it being possible, but still difficult, is bending the rules to make the dungeon more interesting a bad thing? Having to retrieve their items from the last room after defeating the BBEG could be fun and give plenty of incentive, especially since I have a couple greedy players.
(E3-1)Past the hoard is a trick door, it’s a dimension door that teleports them off a cliff near the entrance. I’m sure the return to the start theme is getting obvious now.
(F1) Past the room of statues is a room with a spiked ceiling, obviously it lowers to crush the players after the door locks, there’s a hole in the roof big enough for one player to fit into, the rest are stuck to be squished and thereby from the logic if this illusion dungeon sent back to the beginning minus an item. the trick is that there are 9 runes on the roof and ceiling, picking the right rune deactivates the trap, one of my players can speak the language so this is relatively easy I’m sure.
(G1) This room has a bridge connecting two sides over a large chasm, the trick is that the middle of the bridge is a solid illusion that if they player passes a will save and disbelieves they fall through, a failure means they keep walking, mostly because I loved that skittle commercial where the kid disbelieves the rainbow and falls, I also like the idea of high rolls not necessarily guaranteeing success. I’m fairly sure solid illusions aren’t possible except as a shadow illusion, if that won’t work maybe it uses a wall of force that deactivates if someone disbelieves the illusion? Not sure if this is over the top, otherwise it’s just an illusion and they have a reflex save to disbelieve and catch themselves unless foolishly running, maybe goblins behind cover on the other side to give them a reason to charge…
(H1) This room has spikes on the ceiling and random pockets of reverse gravity that’ll make them fall up into spikes, doing so guess what, tosses them to the entrance minus an item. Fairly sure they’ll figure out to walk tossing a rope out quickly.
(I1)This is a fairly straight forward puzzle with teleportation squares that zip them around the room, they got to figure out a pattern to get through, no danger.
(J1) To the left is a room with stairs on the other end, once they walk up it the stairs turn into a greased slide and they wind up in the river, or teleported, at this point I feel a bit cheesy about that element.
(K1) This room has a locked and trapped treasure chest in it, holding a curse item that requires killing daily to gain its benefit, why? Because the dragolich loves evil, there’s also cursed paintings that if failed a will save sends back to the entrance.
(L1)This room is fairly straight forward, they’re in a room that looks like a forest, if they wander into it they’ll end back up at the camp site In the middle, there is a creepy ghost girl that tells a creepy story to unsettle them, the only danger is if they’re foolish enough to fall asleep here which would make no sense since their dragon would tell them they’re on a time limit, if they do guess what teleport, bam.
(M1) This room has the BBEG, past that is the treasure room with all their stolen goodies plus some additional trinkets.
My players are pretty sharp except the barbarian, so I’m certain they’ll fly through this relatively quick, the problem I have is if this is too much, I’m not sure what the CR for this dungeon is or what DC is reasonable for the illusion traps, among any other details involving dungeons I might have over looked. Again I’m not too familiar with making these so I’m sure it’s abound with mistake for everyone to have fun poking over. Any suggestions are more than welcome and I’m perfectly fine with revamping the whole thing, I just can’t find any illusion traps anywhere on the internet, so aside from hallucinatory terrain there’s not much to do. If I had to give an explanation for the teleporting, I’d say the killing factor is fake, when hit by it they realize it’s not real but something else knocks them out, a minion uses modify memory to erase this fact and teleports them to the start, after picking a pocket or two.
This is kind of a stretch and I’d prefer to avoid one of my players coming here saying how bad a DM I am for making this dungeon, I’d rather get it over with here before I even get to that point.
Essentially I’m a total noob at dungeon making but I want the Xorvintaal based ones to feel more over the top and different because it’s made by dragons playing games with each other using the PCs and NPCs as pieces, so a typical one would mean working for a dragon is the same as going solo, and that just doesn’t sound as fun.
OH and if anyone’s curious the idea behind this is that dragons moving a hoard into another’s territory gain points in the game based on how long they can hold it, so slowing down the enemy is the prime idea, the BBEG will in fact use disabling methods such as tanglefoot bags and sovereign glue then challenging them to riddles opposed to fighting, why? Because time is on their side and it’s the goal that gains more points than simply killing the weaker dragon’s pawns; this is briefly touched upon in MMV.
And no they’re not fighting the dragolich, it’s the BBEGs boss.
Still I’m running my players through Xorvintaal, the dragon great game in Monster Manual V, and they’re up against the exarchs of a blue dragolich who specialized in undead and ghost type monsters. This isn’t the problem, I’m making a dungeon full of illusions and traps in order to ‘test’ the players wit and creativity, but the dungeon I made is perhaps too over the top and I’d appreciate some feedback on how to do it right.
The players are level 8 going on 9 and I have 5 of the buggers; the group consists of a barbarian, samurai, ranger, sorcerer, rogue.
I used some examples I got from a few different websites for ideas:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154363&page=2
And http://www.dungeonmastering.com/campaigns-adventures/clever-dd-traps
My DM teacher tends to heavily house rule and make things up to fit the story, I prefer to keep things as to the book as much as possible, I disliked when my previous DMs arbitrarily did things without any grounds and I’d prefer not to do the same, so if I have to change or remove a room or two that’s fine, if the CR is through the roof I’m also okay with shrinking it.
So here’s the setup:
(A1) First room is the raging silver fire trap, maybe tone the damage down, essentially there’s a protective circle in the center of the room, and everything else gets hit by a fire.
(A2)Room to the right is an endless hallway illusion with a treasure chest at the end, not sure of the DC on something like this.
(B1) Room straight ahead from the first is an empty room with three doors;
(B2) Right is a refreshments room with tea, snacks and a bathroom, it also has the “Variant of the spyglass trap - Peepshow of Doom” where if they keep spending 10 gold and watching a crank movie it’ll hit flesh to stone on one them, the cure is in a vending machine worth 10k gold, why so much is because dragons are greedy and it’s supposed to make them torn between curing a team mate or trying to go on without him; also the bathroom has an arrow trap in the toilet.
(B3)The room on the left is a tipping floor that slides based on who’s balancing it out on which end, the lure is treasure on either side of the room; if they fall they end up in an underground river that takes them to the dungeon entrance, not sure how much damage a river would do to them.
(C1) Straight from B1 is a trap room that shuts and locks both doors and sets a count-down timer with 5 minutes on it; the button resets the clock but when it runs down to 0 it unlocks both doors.
(E1) The next room is a hall of statues, they do nothing but be creepy.
(E2) Right from that is a room with a solitary weeping angel statue, it’ll move when they’re not looking and occasionally look scary, this is a Doctor Who reference and I know some of my players have watched it, I’m thinking it’s an illusion that responds correctly if destroyed, or maybe an animated object that is repaired, in either case it does nothing but follow them around and be creepy, right out of this room is back to E1 and more statues, suddenly the connection between the rooms is scary.
(E3) The left room has a barbed gate separating off a giant hoard of treasure, if they search they’ll find a button that releases a key-ring full of keys, all of which are fake and none open the gate. Assuming they get past the gate (probably breaking it, the barbarian has high strength) the hoard is a trick as well since the entire thing of gold, diamonds and golden items are all magically altered to look like gold, but are actually common rocks and clay cups, the real treasures are all on the side looking like common useless items like Gauntlet of rust, a sustaining spoon, a candle of truth. I might even toss a bag of devouring that looks like a BoH type 4 just to be a jerk to a greedy player I have mentioned in a previous post who tends to steal all the gold from the group, and the look on his face when he realizes he put an entire hoard of treasure in a bag he can never retrieve it from would be priceless… too much? Okay. If they get to the hoard it’ll set off a pressure plate and knock out gas will be released. Now this is where it gets a bit tricky on suggestion of my DM mentor, he suggested that I make this like a puzzle in Zelda that if they’re knocked unconscious or otherwise killed by the illusion nature of the dungeon, they’re teleported to the entrance minus an item, not sure how this can be done without massively complex spell combinations, considering it’s a dragolich I can see it being possible, but still difficult, is bending the rules to make the dungeon more interesting a bad thing? Having to retrieve their items from the last room after defeating the BBEG could be fun and give plenty of incentive, especially since I have a couple greedy players.
(E3-1)Past the hoard is a trick door, it’s a dimension door that teleports them off a cliff near the entrance. I’m sure the return to the start theme is getting obvious now.
(F1) Past the room of statues is a room with a spiked ceiling, obviously it lowers to crush the players after the door locks, there’s a hole in the roof big enough for one player to fit into, the rest are stuck to be squished and thereby from the logic if this illusion dungeon sent back to the beginning minus an item. the trick is that there are 9 runes on the roof and ceiling, picking the right rune deactivates the trap, one of my players can speak the language so this is relatively easy I’m sure.
(G1) This room has a bridge connecting two sides over a large chasm, the trick is that the middle of the bridge is a solid illusion that if they player passes a will save and disbelieves they fall through, a failure means they keep walking, mostly because I loved that skittle commercial where the kid disbelieves the rainbow and falls, I also like the idea of high rolls not necessarily guaranteeing success. I’m fairly sure solid illusions aren’t possible except as a shadow illusion, if that won’t work maybe it uses a wall of force that deactivates if someone disbelieves the illusion? Not sure if this is over the top, otherwise it’s just an illusion and they have a reflex save to disbelieve and catch themselves unless foolishly running, maybe goblins behind cover on the other side to give them a reason to charge…
(H1) This room has spikes on the ceiling and random pockets of reverse gravity that’ll make them fall up into spikes, doing so guess what, tosses them to the entrance minus an item. Fairly sure they’ll figure out to walk tossing a rope out quickly.
(I1)This is a fairly straight forward puzzle with teleportation squares that zip them around the room, they got to figure out a pattern to get through, no danger.
(J1) To the left is a room with stairs on the other end, once they walk up it the stairs turn into a greased slide and they wind up in the river, or teleported, at this point I feel a bit cheesy about that element.
(K1) This room has a locked and trapped treasure chest in it, holding a curse item that requires killing daily to gain its benefit, why? Because the dragolich loves evil, there’s also cursed paintings that if failed a will save sends back to the entrance.
(L1)This room is fairly straight forward, they’re in a room that looks like a forest, if they wander into it they’ll end back up at the camp site In the middle, there is a creepy ghost girl that tells a creepy story to unsettle them, the only danger is if they’re foolish enough to fall asleep here which would make no sense since their dragon would tell them they’re on a time limit, if they do guess what teleport, bam.
(M1) This room has the BBEG, past that is the treasure room with all their stolen goodies plus some additional trinkets.
My players are pretty sharp except the barbarian, so I’m certain they’ll fly through this relatively quick, the problem I have is if this is too much, I’m not sure what the CR for this dungeon is or what DC is reasonable for the illusion traps, among any other details involving dungeons I might have over looked. Again I’m not too familiar with making these so I’m sure it’s abound with mistake for everyone to have fun poking over. Any suggestions are more than welcome and I’m perfectly fine with revamping the whole thing, I just can’t find any illusion traps anywhere on the internet, so aside from hallucinatory terrain there’s not much to do. If I had to give an explanation for the teleporting, I’d say the killing factor is fake, when hit by it they realize it’s not real but something else knocks them out, a minion uses modify memory to erase this fact and teleports them to the start, after picking a pocket or two.
This is kind of a stretch and I’d prefer to avoid one of my players coming here saying how bad a DM I am for making this dungeon, I’d rather get it over with here before I even get to that point.
Essentially I’m a total noob at dungeon making but I want the Xorvintaal based ones to feel more over the top and different because it’s made by dragons playing games with each other using the PCs and NPCs as pieces, so a typical one would mean working for a dragon is the same as going solo, and that just doesn’t sound as fun.
OH and if anyone’s curious the idea behind this is that dragons moving a hoard into another’s territory gain points in the game based on how long they can hold it, so slowing down the enemy is the prime idea, the BBEG will in fact use disabling methods such as tanglefoot bags and sovereign glue then challenging them to riddles opposed to fighting, why? Because time is on their side and it’s the goal that gains more points than simply killing the weaker dragon’s pawns; this is briefly touched upon in MMV.
And no they’re not fighting the dragolich, it’s the BBEGs boss.