Volcanic mountain/cavern style dungeon, as red dragon lair.

[MonkeySage]

I posted a query earlier related somewhat to this topic, in which I mentioned brain storming for a scenario my monster party might have fun with.

My villain is a very old red dragon, and my party all have monster abilities in addition to their class abilities.

The scenario I have settled on is a fire cave of sorts, a volcanic dungeon. Now, my maps tend to be awful, so I'm wondering what advice I might glean from you guys on the issue.

Specifically I stuggle with: Setting up encounters inside dungeons. Distributing treature. Deciding when and where they should encounter the dungeon's boss. Setting up a dungeon that is believable with regards to what it is supposed to represent.

Now since everyone in the group has 15 or more class levels, I'm not worried about holding back; I can cut loose, especially since most of them have a loophole to escape dying. I've a blackguard/fighter, a bard, a psychokineticist, a cleric, barbarian/frenzied berserker, and a monk in this group.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=322266

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The interior of the volcano is extremely hazardous and teleporting in will always result in them appearing in a closed chamber that's completely encased in hardened stone. The volcanic glass and the dragon's magical markings cause any teleportation effect to be redirected into such rooms without fail. Such chambers have had no ventilation for ages and the air is a thick sulfur and smoke that's toxic to anyone that breathes it (treat as a permanent Pyrotechnics Smoke Cloud effect with immediate suffocation). There are also Unhallow spells covering such rooms that affect them with a permanent Silence effect. The high amount of volcanic glass makes spells and effects which normally permit the user to pass through stone completely useless.

There's a high chance that any such room is inhabited by the undead remains of any adventurers who found themselves trapped there. I'd use Winterspawn (Frostburn) adapted to fire instead of cold for warriors, Ghosts for casters, and Greater Shadows for sneaky types, all modified per the Fiery Skeleton variant in Libris Mortis p162. Any research they do will only indicate that many capable adventurers have tried teleporting into the lair only to have never been heard from again.


The dragon has placed at least one permanent Wall of Greater Dispel Magic at a caster level of at least 20 across any entrance that adventurers could use. Make each entrance guarded by multiple advanced (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm) Obsidian Oozes (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20031123a), in addition to multiple traps. An ooze only gains +1 CR per +4 HD, and they would get the standard +1 CR per size increase, plus don't forget that fractions round down. At 26 HD (Huge) they would be CR 13, and I'd give them the elite array for CR 14, stats would be Str 33, Dex 1, Con 28, Int --, Wis 1, Cha 1, with 18 natural armor, and throw at least four of those at the party at once.

The ground should be littered with pits that lead to tunnels that the oozes have burrowed out, but the party won't see any of the oozes initially. The ground should be a mix of rock and volcanic glass, many of the glass spots should be a thin layer covering another pit that anyone will fall through if it's stepped on. When someone walks near a pit an ooze can charge up and skewer them for a surprise round, then try to engulf them and retreat back down the hole while more slither out to surround the party. They don't fall through the thin spots of the floor unless they want to since their weight is distributed across such a large surface.


Definitely include a tunnel that's flooded with lava which they'll have to swim through to proceed. Hiding in the lava is at least one 12-headed Half-Red-Dragon Cryohydra. Its feats should include Snatch, Improved Snatch, and Multisnatch, the latter two are in the Draconomicon. I'd also consider giving it Quicken Breath from the Draconomicon. One of its heads wears a Blindfold of True Darkness (MIC). It should position itself to AoO someone as they swim past and then full attack on the surprise round, letting the first few of them swim past and attacking once at least two of them are within reach, preferably including the second to the last one in line. It should grab as many of them as it can, and on the next round use its cold breath to damage those it didn't grab as well as harden the lava around them, encasing them in stone if they fail the save vs its breath. Note that it can use Multisnatch to count only the heads that grabbed as part of the grapple, so its other heads can attack grappled opponents as though from outside the grapple denying them their Dex bonus to AC.


It's late, but I may come back tomorrow to give some advice on the dragon itself.

[Arcane_Secrets]

Volcanic glass is a good idea for some other reasons:

It can be extremely slippery without using magic (which allows in combination with magic for some fairly nasty combinations, like ramps or slides that drop beings into dispel magic traps and then into lava, suffocating gas pockets, or even right into the dragon's mouth).

It can also be extremely sharp, which allows for blade traps (or perhaps also invisible and levitated daggers/spears of such that can be dispelled and then dropped on enemies). Another option without the magic is that sharpened stalactites from the ceiling can be shattered and then dropped on players with a well-placed tail strike.

Since the dragon knows quite well that its breath can kill most foes, the dungeon should be designed to give it as many chances to breathe on foes as possible. Human-sized passageways would have breath-holes (probably disguised with illusions so targets don't know they're passing them) that allow the dragon to breathe at intruders and then bolt if any kind of serious resistance is offered. Towards the center of the volcano (since I'm assuming that it has a large crater and lava at the bottom, but it might not), it might have a lot of open areas where the dragon can fly around (and get out) and breathe on foes, while also potentially knocking them off into the lava below.

Treasure might sort of depend on who the dragon has been robbing or if it took over a previous lair, but at a minimum, it's going to need to be made of material that the dragon can't destroy (so hard gems are a good choice) or otherwise can be protected from its breath and raw, mechanical damage.

Personality-wise, is this dragon likely to 'play with its food' or just go for immediate lethality?

[MonkeySage]

Great ideas so far!

I will say that most of the party do not have access to magic that'd let them swim through lava, though there are probably 2 people who could, based entirely on racials, tolerate lava.

I'm loving suggestions about volcanic glass so far, and about poisonous gas(i could work in something involving the poisonous gas, since 2 of my players are not susceptible to poison, one being an undead and the other immune to poison. Maybe an encounter that only these two can fight).

The dragon himself is pretty much atypical for his type; most red dragons kill their pray quickly, rather than let it get away or fight back. This one is more of a sadistic trickster. He particularly enjoys sewing distrust between comrades.

[Arcane_Secrets]

Some other ideas:

A lot of poisonous gases are also denser than air and tend to be flammable as well. This allows for the possibility of pockets where the dragon can breathe on them from above and light them out on fire remotely even if it misses them directly.

Edited to add: A massive pocket like this would also be a good way for the dragon to protect those treasures in its hoard that are fire/explosion immune. It's kind of hard for thieves that are alive to stuff their packs and get out while they are being poisoned. This would also allow the undead party members a challenge in that they might have to figure out a way of airing out these hoard-chambers (perhaps by blowing a hole into a nearby volcanic chimney, allowing the gas to flow down and outwards) so the rest of the party can also collect their share.

One idea for the dragon sowing distrust might be for it to use illusions or other tricks to convince party members that they're each out for treasure individually, or they might even be trying to betray each other for it. I'm not quite sure how to actually design for this though. Perhaps one idea would be traps that look like they're triggered by party members but are triggered by the dragon instead, so that way the party members think betrayal is more likely than draconic manipulation? Another idea might be traps that are designed to look like 'trust tests' in that they require two party members to solve, but it's possible that if one party member distrusts/dislikes the other, they can really get the other seriously injured.