Help with Treasure Room Lord_Gareth Stay out.

[Mithosaurion]

I recently asked for help on this forum with an undead planet. The advice was good, so I come to you all once again with a writers block (or Dm's block). I have a tomb of an elven prince that the party is going to enter on a world that has been mostly taken over by the fey. The tomb is going ok so far, but I am stumped on what to do for this treasure room.

The party will have to answer a riddle to enter the room (the riddle is easy but there is a hint in another part of the tomb) and will find some gold and a treasure chest with goodies inside it.

By the way, how much gold is good for a level 10 party?

Anyway, getting back on track, I want something to lie in wait for them in the room, but I just cant think of what to use. Something with little to no intelligence like a slime would do, I just cant think of a good one right now.

Any help will be appreciated. :smallsmile:

[Nohwl]

what you should do is make the ceiling of the room out of glass. on top of the glass is all of the gold, don't know how much is appropriate off the top of my head. then what you need to do is put the oozes on top of the treasure. (the gold will block line of sight to the oozes.)

so, any time the ceiling gets hit, it breaks. the entire thing. if players are standing under it, they take damage for the gold/broken glass falling on them. then they have to deal with the oozes (black puddings would work) that were hiding above the treasure.

[Agent 451]

Add to that a spell turret that is programmed to buff the ooze, if you want a little more chaos.

[Canarr]

Wouldn't the oozes dissolve the gold? And the glass as well? :smallconfused:

[mrcarter11]

While the environment is totally wrong, I can say that using a Darktentacle from MM2 would be really entertaining. It can attack the entire party by itself, so as they gold and everything falls on them, this thing that was buried in the gold suddenly starts swinging longswords and greataxes at them.

[Kitzo]

You could make the treasure chest a mimic and toss in a secret door that leads to the glass above, then toss the slimed at them and have the ceiling break as they fight if they don't just smash it down.

[Cieyrin]

If you want to be particularly devious and wish to extend the ooze idea, make the treasure area out of frozen Gelatinous Cubes in a maze configuration that slowly thaw when the room is breached, so not only do they have limited time to get to the moneys, they have to deal with the Cubes coming back alive and shifting the maze configuration. :smallbiggrin:

[Andorax]

Flooding the treasure chamber as part of the last big trap is always popular.

Also, the Draconomicon introduces a charming critter called a Hoard Scarab (also comes in Swarms)...little ravenous flesh-eating beatles that look like gold pieces from a distance.

To pull the undead theme into it and be genuinely unpleasent in general...make a Tomb Warden (Undead PrC from Libris Mortis) undead guardian with the Swarm Shifter template...Hoard Scarab version. It's a pile of gold...no, it's a swarm of ravenous scarab beetles...no it's an advanced mummy that can collapse INTO a swarm or ravenous scarab beetles!

[Toy Killer]

I personally love the idea of 'treasure guardians' being royal guard. Call me cliche, but it would be pretty cool if the swarm-shifting mummies would shift into scarabs, fly around in a cylinder and recreate the effect of 'vortex of teeth' from Spell Compendium, stop, resume fighting again, get down to a certain amount of hp, swarm again, and then when the players finally kill them, they die in a shower of gold.

who says an ancient elf lord can't defend his gold in style?

[Vilyathas]

By level 10, your party should have about 49'000gp each, while the standard treasure value for an EL10 encounter is about 5800gp.

A fun encounter I had in Dungeons and Dragons Online: use a monster with electricity-based attacks (say, a Storm Elemental) in a treasure room with mounds of coins for instant electrifying goodness.

[tiercel]

When you talk about a room full of gold, in a world dominated by fey, the first thing that pops into my head is "fairy gold."

(I'm not saying cheat the PCs out of treasure altogether, but... they might have to make a return trip at least ;)

If that's the route you're going, it probably means fey have been in and out of the tomb, maybe snaffled a few goodies particularly to their liking, and then laid glamers of their own down as an added touch. (If the tomb's defenses are significant, they might have even dumped some things they aren't fond of, e.g. cold iron weapons, iron-based magic items, where they would be safe, even "in trade" for looted princely treasures.)

This would give you an excuse to have two sets of defenses up -- remaining original elven tomb wards, and mischievous fey additions that came after. Illusions and enchantments could greatly enhance the effect of any lurking ancient traps (oozes or otherwise) -- concealing the danger, hindering PCs (e.g. confusion is a particularly nasty effect to spring on a party in time of danger). If nothing else, the PCs might not even find the actual treasure on a first trip, if they take the glamered "bait" and later discover its true nature.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

One of these: HOARD GOLEM (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50413) :smallbiggrin:

...then, after the fight, let Lord_Gareth (assuming you want him out because he's in the party) know that I was responsible for that monster. Tell me what reaction you get (he and I have known each other for years).

You might want to drop the Engulf DC to be about a 50% chance for the average party member though, as otherwise the encounter is brutally fatal.

[Sudain]

Animated objects are fun.

[Yorrin]

Have a bunch of Monstrous Scorpions have a nest in the giant pile of treasure. Add templates as necessary for flavor and to get the difficulty where you want it. Have the room be pitch black for added fun.

[Malimar]

One of these: HOARD GOLEM (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50413) :smallbiggrin:

My first reaction to the OP was "ooh, this is exactly what the Hoard Scarab and Hoard Scarab Swarm (from Draconomicon) are for!", but those are CR1/2 and CR5, respectively. Four to eight hoard scarab swarms would be approximately ECR9-11, I suppose. The Hoard Golem, assuming reasonably accurate CRs, fills as similar conceptual niche but is tougher. So it's probably up to how challenging an encounter you want. (If you want "very challenging indeed", you could mix a Hoard Golem with a couple Hoard Scarab Swarms.)

Also consider some combination of:
Gemstone Golems (Monsters of Faerun, CR11-12+);
Gem Scarabs (MM5, CR2+);
the obvious Mimic (MM1/SRD, CR4+);
Animated Objects (MM1/SRD, CR1/2-10) in the form of piles of coins, thrones, or other treasure.

[doko239]

How's this for an idea:


The PC's enter the much-anticipated treasure room... only to find it almost completely empty! All signs point to a hasty looting at some point in the distant past. Aside from scraps of moldering silks and the occasional rusted-out sword, the only treasure to be found is a single gold coin, lying forgotten on the ground towards the center of the room.

This coin, while seemingly normal, is actually the lid to an Iron Flask embedded in the floor, which releases a Bone Devil (or some such outsider) once someone picks it up.

Upon killing the Bone Devil, its death throes cause the ceiling to collapse, spilling the actual treasure down into the room.