big teej's big treasure thread (dwarf edition)

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders!

next session (i.e. TOMORROW) the group's task is to recover the treasure and artifacts and stuff from an abandoned dwarven vault...

they are putting the items to use to help break a siege.

I don't know what all to put in there though...
I don't want it to be just a list of "oh you find x +y battleaxes and such"

so far the only thing I have set in stone is "the hammer of thunderbolts" which is going to be claimed by the dwarf fighter.

aside from that though, I'm actually rather stumped.

I'm tempted to throw in things like a slaughterstone behemoth and a few other constructs the party can use to help break the siege.... but I really am at a loss.

ideas?

for the record, I'm trying to stay away from "you find x +y battleaxes"

[Kol Korran]

um... i haven't been following all your threads big teej, so i don't know your party's composition or levels. however, in places of wonder/ ancient mystery/ all that mojo, i tend to put some general treasure, but add a few special thematic homebrew items. the following items are general ideas, you'll have to adjust them to the power level you like:

- a tablet/ old scripture with an ancient powerfull dwarven song/ battle hymn engraved into it. when read aloud it can raise the morals of all dwarves in X radius, giving them certain bonuses. this may be activated by dwarves or those who succeed in a high perform check. the main idea is that the area of effect is BIG, useful for armies and such. i imagine the exact effect could be something like recitation or the like.

- special oils the drawves have made, that grants armor/ weapons a permanent small unique bonus (DR? fear aura against dwarves' enemies? giant bane ability?) or short lasting big bonus. the secrets to the oils has been lost, so they can't be reproduced. and there are not many of them.

- some item (ritual hammer? staff? helmet?) that can be used to manipulate rock and earth. basically like a staff, but can be used by anyone, probably with lesser charges, and has rock/ earth themes (shape earth/rock, meld into stone, maybe summon earth elementals and the like) i suggest that it might be augmented with metamagic feats like effects if the wielder shows great devotion to dwarf gods, or perform a great service tothem or swears an alliegence and thelike

- something that may be a bit wired/ nasty, but some people might like it. there could be a casket/ closet, hole in the wall or the like, that when a character comes into it or places her arm into it, the things suddenly closes, and by magic and dwarven ancient lore, some of the character is... replaced (you add a graft invulneterily) this has been due to the dwarves earlier experimentation with limb substitution, trying to make their soldiers stronger. a character can have a living stone arm or a warforged arm...

- a small globe of divination, enabling scrying or divination or clairaudience/ clairvoyance to a long distance. used by the dwarves to help predict the future. such a tool could be very helpful in a siege. i suggest to flavor it though as a globe containing the spirits of many dwarven elders. each in turn speaks to the PCs that summon it. the dwarven spirits may require various things in return- a show of respect, performing old dwarven rituals, fixing domestic problems in the dwarven community and other such small things. could be fun if you're players are into it.

- a bit like the warforged arm idea- how about the party find a bunch of old consturcts, only with a place for a person in them? a sort of an ancient smaller "battle mech" only one or two are still usable, and their power won't last that long, and the lore to create them may be lost. but perhaps till the siege ends? i have no idea as for the mechanics, but it could be cool.

hope this helps. don't forget art and the like depicting the dwarf culture (which you know more about) good luck!

[big teej]

that's a great start, and I actually really like the battlemech and replacement limb ideas, those will likely make an appearence.

yes.....

:smallbiggrin:

here's the list of treasure's I've come up with just combing through my books.

the idea is to have lots of things useful to the siege as a whole, and things that add a bit more oomph to the party for the duration of the siege.

list of stuff

Breastplate of command
Dwarven plate x 6
Rhino hide armor

Spined shield

Dwaven thrower + hammer of thunderbolts = one item

10 javelins of lightning

Ring of protection + 3
4 rings of sustenance
2 rings of counterspelling

1 ring of mind shielding


3 rods of metal and mineral protection

1 staff of earth and stone

1 wand of daylight

Amulet of health + 2

Amulet of natural armor + 1

3 apparatus of kwalish

2 handy haversacks

Belt of dwarvenkind

Belt of giant strength + 4

Brooch of shielding

60 everburning torches

Gauntlets of ogre power

1 iron flask – large earth elemental

Necklace of adaptation

Stone of controlling earth elementals
Stone salve



and now, I'll expand ever so slightly on the situation.

the party is level 5 (6 after tomorrow's session)
consisting of...

Human Paladin
Dwarf Fighter
Gnome Cleric
Human Barbarian
Gnome bard Elf Duskblade
Human Ranger
Elf Druid
Halfling Rogue

I plan on the -in game- section of this adventure taking about 6 months, (the party has been called in to break the siege, not see it all the way through to it's end, that would likely take 5 -10 years)

out of game - I'll push this thing as long as it hold's the party's interest, even extending the in-game timeframe if necessary.

[Fizban]

A quick skim of some of the quirkier items in the DMG gives me a few ideas that shouldn't be too spendy:

A Lyre of Building can make any fortress almost impossible to break. Used "offensively," you could crisscross the enemy camp with mazes of moats and ditches and make it impossible for them to get anything done.

Depending on how big the "siege" is (if a party of 5th-6th level characters can personally force an entrenched army to pack up and leave, it ain't much of an army), the various Pipes of X could also be useful. Pipes of Haunting could rout a small force, causing them to stampede right into an ambush. Pipes of Pain have no limit on uses and can permanently curse, if not kill huge groups of low hp mooks. Pipes of the Sewers are dirt cheap and let you call up Rat Swarms, which have automatic damage and carry disease-disease being the bane of any army.

If you really want to let a low level party crush a siege, then you need a scroll of a high level spell. Control Weather and Control Winds are the standard for wrecking an army's day. Boreal Wind from Frostburn also has a great potential killing swath on an open field. If the army makes use of a lot of undead, Celestial Brilliance from the Book of Exalted Deeds lasts for a week and deals damage every round to all undead within the area (centered on a mobile object of course). Dwarves would probably be more inclined towards spells like Earthquake, or the higher level Undermaster that gives you several rounds of high level earth spells at-will. Or just dispense with the pleasantries and drop a Cloudkill or two on 'em. There's even a nice volcano spell called Erupt in the Serpent Kingdoms book that will wipe out just about everything in a 1700' radius. When a 9th level scroll is only worth 3,825gp and you have the justification of an "ancient vault," no spell is beyond your hint dropping abilities. Although Erupt is probably overkill with your group-the Pipes or Lyre are probably a better idea.

[Dumbledore lives]

It seems like you're giving a lot of stuff to a fairly low level party, you might want to reconsider giving such expensive permanent items. Something like scrolls, or necklaces of fireballs or something, one use stuff so WBL stays vaguely intact.

[Gorfang113]

If your going to give them a Slaughterstone Construct then I would suggest multiple Eviscerators over one Behemoth. I find that they do more damage in groups than a single behemoth does. Also if the players are the ones commanding them it allows 3 players to control one, rather than one player controls the huge killing machine (that can only go over well...). And if you really want you might have saddles built into or put on the Eviscerators and make them mounts :smallbiggrin:.

Edit: I thought of this about 3 seconds after posting, but if the PCs lose a Slaughterstone then the eviscerators are still better salvagewise, because the behemoth would give at best 10,000gp of salvage. The eviscerator gives at most 7,500gp from the stone of its body, and then gives you the adamantine used in the greatswords (as the swords themselves lose their enchantment and cannot be used as weapons if the eviscerator dies).

[big teej]

Depending on how big the "siege" is (if a party of 5th-6th level characters can personally force an entrenched army to pack up and leave, it ain't much of an army), the various Pipes of X could also be useful. Pipes of Haunting could rout a small force, causing them to stampede right into an ambush. Pipes of Pain have no limit on uses and can permanently curse, if not kill huge groups of low hp mooks. Pipes of the Sewers are dirt cheap and let you call up Rat Swarms, which have automatic damage and carry disease-disease being the bane of any army.


I'm in a bit of a rush, but I saw something in this paragraph and another post that I wanted to address quickly. but I'll get a full reply out later.

"ain't much of an army"

in terms of levels? you're absolutely right.

however, the highest EXISTING PC or NPC in the world is level 8, with 1 plot exceptions that is merely referenced, and will likely not actually be seen in the campaign.

my world is still being built, so in many ways it started leveling at the same time as the party.


also, the party themselves are not breaking the siege single handedly. the hold they have been called to help has lost their warrior culture.... and ergo all their tactical sense.

they have been called in as visible uber-leader type people to boost morale and to actually get the dwarf army back on it's feet.

they're breaking the siege in a far more metaphorical manner.

think hero's in warhammer. no single character (or group of characters) could obliterate an opposing army.

but they CAN boost the performance of the army enough to fight off a greater foe.

anywho, more in depth response ever.



It seems like you're giving a lot of stuff to a fairly low level party, you might want to reconsider giving such expensive permanent items. Something like scrolls, or necklaces of fireballs or something, one use stuff so WBL stays vaguely intact.

again, quick response.

ALOT of what they're getting is going back to the hold OR only being used during the siege.

I have zero intention for letting most of these things be taken outside the hold into the rest of the adventure.


last, they're level 5 now, but they'll be level 6 by the end of this session, and are projected to be level 10 by the time they have broken the siege (which will be over the course of 6 months - 2 or 3 years in game)

so I'm not toooooo worried about the overly strong items. anything that would be too disruptive in normal play at this level will simply be returned to the hold.

however, over the course of .5 - 2 years, I expect much of the equipment to be used up and/or destroyed.

but I digress.

[Dimers]

When I hear "ancient dwarven artifact to help break a siege", I think "lava-shooting cannon!!!1!" :smallbiggrin:

[tyckspoon]

I can't help but think that Dwarf Ancestors (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060704a&page=3) should have some role to play here. Maybe an old battle-standard or similar that can be used by an acknowledged Dwarf leader to call a squad of Ancestors to his people's aid- an individual Ancestor is a potent weapon in a low-level world, and they have an Inspire Courage-like effect on Dwarves just for being around.

Edit: Also, if you have Magic Item Compendium around, it has a number of decent weapon consumables, including things that function basically as land-mines. If your dwarves have/had the traditional mining focus, these could sensibly double up as tunneling charges.