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Elvenoutrider
2011-11-13, 09:50 PM
So for the next portion of my gurps fantasy campaign, the pcs will have to cross a mountain range infested by monsters. One of the options they have to take pass the mountains is to use go through an abandoned dwarf fortress. The fortress has been taken from the underdark by an insect themed evil race.

Unfortunately the only two obstacles I can think of for the campaign are an animated statue that the pcs have to shut down by simply telling it to stand down, and the final boss itself.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any obstacles, encounters or traps to use?

Fortuna
2011-11-13, 09:53 PM
Cage traps, obviously. And rampaging swarms of mind-controlling kitties. And the deepest depths have trapdoors that drop you into magma.

Arminius
2011-11-13, 10:03 PM
You could have rooms that seal off and flood with water till the PC's are drowned. Cave spiders might have occupied bits of the fortress. Everything needs to menace with spikes too.

Calanon
2011-11-13, 10:14 PM
So for the next portion of my gurps fantasy campaign, the pcs will have to cross a mountain range infested by monsters. One of the options they have to take pass the mountains is to use go through an abandoned dwarf fortress. The fortress has been taken from the underdark by an insect themed evil race.

Unfortunately the only two obstacles I can think of for the campaign are an animated statue that the pcs have to shut down by simply telling it to stand down, and the final boss itself.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any obstacles, encounters or traps to use?

You've come to the right place :smallamused:

Here are your options, since they are dwarven traps you HAVE to use the falling rocks trap (not the DM's fiat response to auto killing the party one, the one that allows a reflex save) than there is the Golem Ambush trap (Where the party gets ambushed by sentient Golems and Half-Golems, this usually renders the Casters of the group with little to no options but still not entirely useless to the party) and than there is the funniest trap of them all, the "room of betrayal" Trap its a Mixture of a spelltrap and a classic Ambush of the previously used creatures (providing you DID use creatures in the last trap) The Spelltrap is usually a Dominate Person with an insanely high DC on the parties healer :smallamused: this can usually assure that the party is pretty screwed after the encounter making the BBEG fight a difficult encounter :smallamused:

HOWEVER! if this is NOT the final dungeon for your group than I recommend not Dominating the healer and just having a Ghost (in your case a Dwarven Ghost) attack the Healer, Provided your Arcane Caster has prepared a response to this (If he/she didn't I am very disappony in him) this will slow the party down for a while and again give the BBEG enough time to escape (or weaken them enough for him TO escape):smalltongue:

Jay R
2011-11-13, 11:49 PM
A large group of zombies animated centuries ago by the evil cleric or lich who lived here after the dwarves.

A lodestone tunnel. (Armor, weapons and any other metal will stick to the walls. That's a great time for bats, rats or other vermin who don't use weapons.

My last abandoned dwarven city had a large open area that had been their market. But the large pathway straight into the mountain from there was a dead-end trap. Beyond the Mall, the thirty foot passage continues onward, slowly upward. A dwarf (only) will notice that the floor is too smooth to carry ore carts down or up. If the party takes that passage, then 70 feet later, roll for a listen check – one of them has triggered the trap. A moment later, they will hear a dim sound from up the passage. It grows louder, and sounds like a rattling – stone on stone? Metal on stone? There is no time for a loaded-down party to make it back to the mall. The 20 foot tall, 30 foot wide passage leads to a steeper passage, down which a nearly 20 diameter, 30 foot cylinder has been released, and is no rolling toward the party. You cannot avoid it; you must reach the mall and step aside, and it will roll harmlessly by, sealing that entrance. If you are carrying any large burdens that you drop (my group was overloaded with gold), then it can stop the roller, but anything you drop will be wedged under tons of stone. (It's purpose was to kill or trap an invading army, allowing the dwarves to activate other defenses.

To the NW, a ten foot wide door is seen. This door goes uphill a short while, and then the floor collapses if more than three hundred pounds is on it. The first three ranks of the party slides down a long steep ramp. Characters take 1d6 damage. Bags rip open. When they recover, they are at the bottom of a long slide, with a single passage. On the wall is written “Go away” in Dwarfish, Common, Elvish, Orc, Goblin and (curiously) Greek. There’s probably a story there, but you don’t know what it is. The passage leads back out of the mountain the way you came.

Gavinfoxx
2011-11-14, 12:16 AM
I think maybe this is the wrong place to ask about this sort of thing... maybe here might be better?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?&board=2.0

deuxhero
2011-11-14, 01:52 AM
What? No "Undead Carp"?

supermonkeyjoe
2011-11-14, 04:36 AM
Herds of elephants roaming outside, obligatory killswitch rigged to flood the whole fortress with magma, underground mushroom farms blood everywhere and unnecessarily elaborately carved items made of various materials.

Gavinfoxx
2011-11-14, 04:38 AM
Herds of elephants roaming outside, obligatory killswitch rigged to flood the whole fortress with magma, underground mushroom farms blood everywhere and unnecessarily elaborately carved items made of various materials.

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

Ravens_cry
2011-11-14, 05:10 AM
Yes, traps sound good. Resettable would be useful. At least you have an excuse for them to be still functional, dwarves are famous for building well. Remember the basic rule of trap making. Unless there is a simple means of deactivating it, people are not going to put traps in places where they are inconvenient for the people who work and live their, and often not even then. You don't want to have to deal with a poison dart and a pit trap every time you go to relieve yourself. Oh, and include such places. This is a place people lived and people who live have needs. Include kitchens, garderobes, and sleeping areas in the plans. It is a fortress, so there is probably a source of water as well as plenty of room for supplies.
Mushroom forests don't really work thermodynamically, living things are only so efficient, so light access or light spells for indoor farming areas if this is a fortress that is meant to hold really, really long term, which I imagine a dwarf fortress would be.
Important areas will have or had protections against magical incursion, like teleportation and scrying.
People have other needs besides the physical, a common area with games, like dice, chess, and playing cards, make sense, as does a chapel area dedicated to dwarven gods. What state it is in now is up to you.

Gavinfoxx
2011-11-14, 05:13 AM
...You don't have a clue what the mushroom forests are referring to, do you?

Pssst. You've missed a joke..

Ravens_cry
2011-11-14, 05:16 AM
...You don't have a clue what the mushroom forests are referring to, do you?

Pssst. You've missed a joke..
Don't know, might care. Enlighten me.

Gavinfoxx
2011-11-14, 05:18 AM
Only the most awesome and deep game EVER. It's better than Minecraft!

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

http://df.magmawiki.com/

Ravens_cry
2011-11-14, 05:26 AM
Oh. That.
Mushroom forests are hardly endemic to the game Dwarf Fortress. I believe, if I remember rightly, the are mentioned in The Silver Chair.

Gavinfoxx
2011-11-14, 05:42 AM
It's not just that... there have been at least four references to gameplay mechanics from that game in this thread...

Ravens_cry
2011-11-14, 05:45 AM
Given the thread title, that does not surprise me. I even caught some of them even though I do not play on my second read through.
As far as giving helpful advice, I still stand by my statement, mushroom forests as a food source will not work thermodynamically.

0Megabyte
2011-11-14, 02:48 PM
Of course not. Unless, of course, you use Dwarven physics... the same physics that allows you to suspend an entire platform with a single retractable bridge, and which allows perpetual motion machines with water wheels...

That is to say, you are also talking about a game with dwarves, elves and magic. Thermodynamics be damned.

Ravens_cry
2011-11-14, 03:03 PM
No, no I will not damn thermodynamics, unless you are making a campaign that explicitly homages Dwarf Fortress.
Nothing about elves or dwarves is explicitly or implicitly magical beyond perhaps their lifespans. Magic exists, yes, but unless it is explicitly invoked, like my suggestions for indoor farms lit by light spells, there is no reason to get carried away and toss the whole lot out.
Should I allow non-magical wood to burn forever because "thermodynamics be damned"?
I say thee nay!

Beleriphon
2011-11-14, 10:37 PM
Magic exists, yes, but unless it is explicitly invoked, like my suggestions for indoor farms lit by light spells, there is no reason to get carried away and toss the whole lot out.
I say thee nay!

Wait, don't mushrooms grow in dark places largely because they don't create nutrients via photosynthesis? I always thought one of the main sources of appropriate growing conditions was damp, dark and warm for most fungus. Especially, since fungus isn't a plant in current taxanomic classifications.

Incidentally, mushrooms have more in common with humans than plants, at least genetically. Heck some fungi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panellus_stipticus)are Bioluminescent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_nidiformis) just like fireflies.

Ravens_cry
2011-11-15, 01:17 AM
Wait, don't mushrooms grow in dark places largely because they don't create nutrients via photosynthesis? I always thought one of the main sources of appropriate growing conditions was damp, dark and warm for most fungus. Especially, since fungus isn't a plant in current taxanomic classifications.

Incidentally, mushrooms have more in common with humans than plants, at least genetically. Heck some fungi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panellus_stipticus)are Bioluminescent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_nidiformis) just like fireflies.
Yes, they will grow in dark places.
In fact, they often grow better in dark places. The thing is though, that energy for them to grow and live comes from somewhere. Lets stay you start a mushroom farm using the occupants waste as the food. But mushrooms are only so efficient at turning waste into food.
Pulling numbers out of my <expletive redacted/>, lets say you have 100 dwarfs who make 70 pounds of waste, which grows 50 pounds of mushrooms, which feeds 30 dwarves, which make 21 pounds of waste. Those numbers are certainly not accurate, but they are an inevitable principle: Thermodynamics is always a matter of stealing from Peter to pay Paul. You can't keep repeating the cycle with the same energy.
In the case of natural photosynthesis, it is the sun that plants are 'stealing' from, but underground without the aid of magic or mirror, that just isn't available.
There is no way without magic a Dwarven fortress, meant to withstand, basically be in a permanent state of siege could have a mushroom forest as a staple food supply.

Toofey
2011-11-15, 01:43 AM
My favorite assertion of fact today


Mushroom forests don't really work thermodynamically

Tvtyrant
2011-11-15, 01:49 AM
On the other hand it would be possible to use internal chemical vents to make a chemical based eco-system. This would imply that Dwarves have the ability to survive large amounts of methane or other chemicals in their diet, and behold! for they have a natural resistance to toxins.

So instead of Mushrooms you get pools of tube worms and weird crabs that the Dwarves tend like rice paddies, just made with methane deep within the earth rather than water on the surface. Hot vent foods would be fast growing but difficult to tend, while cold seeps would be slow growing but easier to tend.

Ravens_cry
2011-11-15, 01:53 AM
That could potentially work, but would require Dwarves to have a very strange physiology compared to other humanoids.
Still, I do like the idea.

Tvtyrant
2011-11-15, 02:02 AM
Then you could even joke about why Dwarven ale is so important to them and no one else can stand it. It is actually a base meant to counteract the nitrates effect on the dwarven body. Dwarves have adopted to eating the underground organisms, but they still require their "ale" served 6 to 8 times a day to survive a diet of it. When they come to the surface they are rarely accepted back into their communities because their bodies adopt to surface food and they rarely survive the return.

Also, this system would explain the more animalish Aberrations as creatures that live off of the nitrate/methane food substances. For instance the Chuul comes from cold seeps.

Ravens_cry
2011-11-15, 03:18 AM
You're getting hard science fiction in my fantasy.
I approve.:smallamused:

Grytorm
2011-11-18, 10:41 AM
Small engraved chambers filled with dog corpses, records indicate that they were used for childcare. A partially dug out vein of admantium coming into contact with an unknown indestructible material. Deep in the fortress you find an unrecognizable monstrosity that breathes out deadly dust.

Hyudra
2011-11-18, 12:57 PM
A deep circular hole in the center of a room, 75' in diameter, with only a 10' walkway around the perimeter. At your discretion, that walkway may be crumbling, eroded, slimy with moisture, etc. Anyone with knowledge (religion) would know that this kind of chamber was used for a religious ceremony involving the rise of the dwarven creator god from the depths. The process involved the hauling of a valuable gem encrusted statue from the depths of the pit. The rope and pulley system may have eroded, but it wouldn't be a huge leap of logic to suspect the statue was still at the bottom.

The "dwarven mousetrap" - a pit trap with a collapsing floor that drops a 2 ton slab of rock over the top of the pit as a 'lid'. There's a chain and winch to haul the slab back into place, for when the dwarves decided those inside were probably dead or dehydrated enough to be looted and brought in for questioning.

"The hills have eyes", dwarf style. Some maddening infection swept through after the events that led to the fortress being abandoned. Those dwarves who stayed behind (perhaps in safe rooms or subtunnels) went mad and began stitching/nailing leather, cloth and metal to their bodies in a grim motley. Compounding their madness were the generations of incest that the dwarves required to keep their bloodline alive. Even the local monsters avoid the areas these mad dwarves lurk within.

Grytorm
2011-11-18, 09:37 PM
A mermaid farm perhaps.

Traab
2011-11-18, 10:49 PM
I is confuzzled. Is the fortress abandoned? Or infested by an evil insectoid race? If it still has the bug people, that does allow for different trap styles slapped together. You dont have to use just standard dwarf style traps, add in extra stuff as well that draws from whatever the heck these bug people can do.

Tvtyrant
2011-11-19, 01:22 AM
A bridge through a flooded chamber, which is now submerged in 3-5 ft. of water. The water below the bridge looks to be bottomless, and trying to cross leads to the party being attacked. The attackers are an Aboleth and its enslaved pet sharks. There are a number of medium and large sharks that swim onto the bridge to fight the party, with the Aboleth casting at the party from outside of the bridge being guarded by a Huge shark. The Aboleth will slime any character that attempts to swim out to it, while the huge shark makes grapple attempts. If the huge shark is killed the Aboleth swims down into the pool. Encounter ECL should be around 8, with an increase to ten by adding a second huge shark.

A similar encounter could be run with undead. A room filled to the waist with muddy water keeps people from using their charge abilities and reduces spot checks, and then a group of zombies/vampires/other assorted undead dwarves rise out of the water and begin fighting.

Dr.Epic
2011-11-19, 12:58 PM
So for the next portion of my gurps fantasy campaign, the pcs will have to cross a mountain range infested by monsters. One of the options they have to take pass the mountains is to use go through an abandoned dwarf fortress. The fortress has been taken from the underdark by an insect themed evil race.

Unfortunately the only two obstacles I can think of for the campaign are an animated statue that the pcs have to shut down by simply telling it to stand down, and the final boss itself.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any obstacles, encounters or traps to use?

Insect minions. If they took over this place, wouldn't they be hanging around it?:smallconfused:

Elvenoutrider
2011-11-20, 09:02 PM
Thank you all for the helpful suggestions and a new procrastination tool. To answer your question the insectoid race have taken over the fortress however their efforts are focused on destroying the remaining dwarf settlements in the mountains. Besides few patrols and the gurps version of a verminlord leader, The fortress is mostly unoccupied. That said one of the encounters will involve the pcs running into a large group.

Gavinfoxx
2011-11-21, 01:35 PM
So you started playing Dwarf Fortress, eh OP? How well have you done so far? Having lots of "Fun"?