MonkeySage
2014-05-25, 10:09 PM
This room has been a pet project of mine for over a month. It isn't even part of the party's quest, rather it opens up for a side quest later. But the intended tone of this encounter is very different from the rest of the dungeon.
I don't really have any encounters planned for it, as the party is level 4 and I'm not sure what types of encounters they could survive. The dungeon is a former duerger city, built under a mountain. The gray dwarves that lived here had gone particularly insane, taken to worshiping some entity they called "Oxsipid". They sacrificed their own king to this creature.
Here's the notes I've got for it, word for word from my dungeon notes. Tell me what you guys think! Maybe some of you can think of ways I might be able to improve it. :)
Room 4: Archives
The door to this room is locked (DC 25)... It is as if the door to this room has not been opened in a while, and takes a bit of effort to push open(Str check DC 10). Succeeding that, the players find a darkened room with an impressive array of bookcases, loaded down with scrolls and stone tablets. Time has not been kind to this place... All over the walls and scratched into the floors are hundreds of markings in no discernible pattern... The centerpiece of which is a circle, with a stylized pentagram. In the center of the pentagram is a bowl, a strange dried black ooze lining the bottom.Towards the end of the room is a very large stone altar, with the same strange markings scribbled all over it... None of the markings are any sort of dwarven.(Aklo) A dusty black mirror on the altar has the same markings etched into it... The centerpiece of the altar is a clay statuette depicting a bizarre creature... The statue seems to draw in any who look at it... (Will save DC 14) If failed... : The statue appears to be calling your name, it’s telling you that you can’t escape, that your enemies are all around you, that you cannot trust anyone.
Confusion
School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M/DF (three nutshells)
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets all creatures in a 15-ft.-radius burst
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
This spell causes confusion in the targets, making them unable to determine their actions. Roll on the following table at the start of each subject's turn each round to see what it does in that round.
d% Behavior
01–25 Act normally
26–50 Do nothing but babble incoherently
51–75 Deal 1d8 points of damage + Str modifier to self with item in hand
76–100 Attack nearest creature (for this purpose, a familiar counts as part of the subject's self)
A confused character who can't carry out the indicated action does nothing but babble incoherently. Attackers are not at any special advantage when attacking a confused character. Any confused character who is attacked automatically attacks its attackers on its next turn, as long as it is still confused when its turn comes. Note that a confused character will not make attacks of opportunity against any creature that it is not already devoted to attacking (either because of its most recent action or because it has just been attacked).
The altar has dark stains on it, and a pile of stocky bones lay off to the side of it. Nearby, in one of the corners, is a stocky skeleton, it’s arms resting on a stone tablet.... The etchings in the tablet are partially written in archaic dwarven, and partially written in aklo, and detail some sort of ritual. Also resting on the altar is a small vial of a clear viscous slime....
I don't really have any encounters planned for it, as the party is level 4 and I'm not sure what types of encounters they could survive. The dungeon is a former duerger city, built under a mountain. The gray dwarves that lived here had gone particularly insane, taken to worshiping some entity they called "Oxsipid". They sacrificed their own king to this creature.
Here's the notes I've got for it, word for word from my dungeon notes. Tell me what you guys think! Maybe some of you can think of ways I might be able to improve it. :)
Room 4: Archives
The door to this room is locked (DC 25)... It is as if the door to this room has not been opened in a while, and takes a bit of effort to push open(Str check DC 10). Succeeding that, the players find a darkened room with an impressive array of bookcases, loaded down with scrolls and stone tablets. Time has not been kind to this place... All over the walls and scratched into the floors are hundreds of markings in no discernible pattern... The centerpiece of which is a circle, with a stylized pentagram. In the center of the pentagram is a bowl, a strange dried black ooze lining the bottom.Towards the end of the room is a very large stone altar, with the same strange markings scribbled all over it... None of the markings are any sort of dwarven.(Aklo) A dusty black mirror on the altar has the same markings etched into it... The centerpiece of the altar is a clay statuette depicting a bizarre creature... The statue seems to draw in any who look at it... (Will save DC 14) If failed... : The statue appears to be calling your name, it’s telling you that you can’t escape, that your enemies are all around you, that you cannot trust anyone.
Confusion
School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M/DF (three nutshells)
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets all creatures in a 15-ft.-radius burst
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
This spell causes confusion in the targets, making them unable to determine their actions. Roll on the following table at the start of each subject's turn each round to see what it does in that round.
d% Behavior
01–25 Act normally
26–50 Do nothing but babble incoherently
51–75 Deal 1d8 points of damage + Str modifier to self with item in hand
76–100 Attack nearest creature (for this purpose, a familiar counts as part of the subject's self)
A confused character who can't carry out the indicated action does nothing but babble incoherently. Attackers are not at any special advantage when attacking a confused character. Any confused character who is attacked automatically attacks its attackers on its next turn, as long as it is still confused when its turn comes. Note that a confused character will not make attacks of opportunity against any creature that it is not already devoted to attacking (either because of its most recent action or because it has just been attacked).
The altar has dark stains on it, and a pile of stocky bones lay off to the side of it. Nearby, in one of the corners, is a stocky skeleton, it’s arms resting on a stone tablet.... The etchings in the tablet are partially written in archaic dwarven, and partially written in aklo, and detail some sort of ritual. Also resting on the altar is a small vial of a clear viscous slime....