Help me Populate the maze!

[Frenth Alunril]

Please help me populate a maze for 3.5 dnd.

Ecology is an issue... I know there are going to be evolved undead inhabiting and caring for the dungeon... so that answers part of the question.

I have also looked at constructs, and clockwork mechanisms...

But I want to put some other things in the dungeon, sealed for eons, for random encounters in this incredible maze. It's supposed to be a real maze, something that gets people lost, trapped, and ultimately, they will starve to death or dehydrate. Odds are it is not littered with corpses or carrion crawlers, as my adventurers should the first people to visit in ages.

So, what would I find in there?

Suggestions?

Does anyone know of a comprehensive list of monsters by ecology from 3.5?

[HighWater]

If you want a more valued ecology that doesn't break suspension of disbelief, all you need is an underground foodsource. Maybe magical light is always on in some parts of the maze, allowing for fungal or plant growth, which sustains smaller grazers, which sustain bigger predators... If your maze is sufficiently large, a bunch of these "oases" let you not only justify living things in the maze as well as allowing you to mix up encounters every once in a while (in one of the oases, they are attacked by an assassin vine)...
Alternatively, something is feeding the monsters in the maze...
Alternatively, everything in the maze is in suspended animation until something enters the maze...

What kind of a maze is it? Nice, clean, walls lined with handcrafted stone? Or wild tunnels of rock, heading in every direction (including up or down)? Does it feature one or several underground lakes? A lavapit or two? (Which can also be used as energy source for the foodchain.)

As for suitable monsters: oozes can go forever without food and are very good maze-predators.

[Coidzor]

It's just not a maze without Minotaurs, or even Mini Minotaurs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVTfszppJl8)! :smallbiggrin:

Though (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKFbUxYJys)Cats (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lycanthrope.htm#weretiger), Cats (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direTiger.htm), Laughing (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16800547&postcount=29) Babies (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/abomination.htm#atropal), People (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/)Falling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/kobold.htm), and Hot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#succubus) , Hot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm#erinyes)Ladies (https://web.archive.org/web/20140630161938/https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e)could give you some ideas for a starting point. Although Atropals are a bit too hardcore, maybe the lesser form bouncing around somewhere would be within the appropriate challenge range.

Everything's better with (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/fungus.htm)Fungus (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/phantomFungus.htm), too.

[Magesmiley]

A range of expected character levels might be helpful.

A few others to add to the list:

Oozes
Green Slime and Yellow/Brown Mold
Extraplanar creatures sealed into rooms or which get summoned
Ethereal Filcher


Not all populating of a maze needs to be creatures too. Some areas with different environmental features could be fun:

Water-filled (perhaps they have to travel underwater to reach certain portions of the maze)
Fiery or magma filled
Reverse gravity
Icy cold, with snow and ice
Misty and fog-filled
Positive and negative energy areas
Wild magic
Dead magic
Chasms
Extremely strong wind
Greased floors
Strange noises
Foul odors
Extraplanar energies leaking out of an ancient gate

Traps are another obvious one
Portals which connect distant areas of the maze
Illusory walls and floors

[bjoern]

[QUOTE=Coidzor;17946167]It's just not a maze without Minotaurs, or even Mini Minotaurs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVTfszppJl8)! :smallbiggrin:QUOTE]

The movie "Your Highness" ruined minotaurs for me. Whenever I think of a minotaur I think of that poor squire. Lol

[Extra Anchovies]

Possibly some of the monsters could be provided via magical traps installed long ago by the maze's creators; either direct Summon Monster/Nature's Ally/Undead/Whatever traps, or maybe even something like Greater Seed of Undeath that raises any corpses in its area as zombies (at least, that's what I remember it doing).

[Lightlawbliss]

I'm a fan of hidden doors in mazes that only open in one way and/or tunnels connecting the maze to the outside world in ways people wouldn't have expected (who ever knew that abandoned mine was part of this maze?).

[Extra Anchovies]

I'm a fan of hidden doors in mazes that only open in one way and/or tunnels connecting the maze to the outside world in ways people wouldn't have expected (who ever knew that abandoned mine was part of this maze?).

Seconded. Any simple maze can be beaten eventually by following one of the walls from the entrance for long enough. Not so if there are one or two secret doors that need passing before you can proceed, or if the way to the exit is blocked by a puzzle of some sort (Book of Challenges has a few encounters involving code- or pattern-solving puzzles, good place to draw ideas from).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Green slime, yellow mold, and other environmental hazards (Frostburn and Sandstorm have a bunch). Oozes are also quite useful.

[Coidzor]

The movie "Your Highness" ruined minotaurs for me. Whenever I think of a minotaur I think of that poor squire. Lol

Not familiar with that one, sorry. :smallconfused:


Seconded. Any simple maze can be beaten eventually by following one of the walls from the entrance for long enough. Not so if there are one or two secret doors that need passing before you can proceed, or if the way to the exit is blocked by a puzzle of some sort (Book of Challenges has a few encounters involving code- or pattern-solving puzzles, good place to draw ideas from).

Or a Warblade or Crusader with Mountain Hammer and someone to direct them on a grid-style search. :smallbiggrin:

[Frenth Alunril]

Lots of good ideas here. I'm looking at the maze as a form of attrition model. Consider the old salt mines in Europe, cavernous and rough hewn and mix them with the endless complex of natural caves in the Yucatan. The purpose of the maze is to confuse and misdirect the invaders until they either relent or they deplete their resources.

I think slimes and oozes sound good! I should consider the resources mined, as well. I want to avoid mythical ecologies of ever growing fungus.

I like the idea of a one way door, but please give me a good example of one that works, that couldn't be overcome with magic/player ingenuity... Unless I play with magic portals, that could be interesting.

On the "follow one wall front, there have to be at least 50 miles of dead-ends on this map. It's really been a work of persistence. But it would be super fun to drop someone near the end at the front of the tunnel because the walked through the wrong door... He he!

[Extra Anchovies]

Another potential idea is to include some sort of fey, elemental, or native outsider that's intrinsically linked to the maze; e.g., an earth elemental or earth-based nature spirit acting as a "protector" of its domain, which happens to be in the same spot as the maze (or was there beforehand and the maze was intentionally built there). It would see the PCs as intruders, and would try to hinder them indirectly (by rigging up traps if you choose fey/outsider, or by reshaping the terrain if it's an elemental) and/or directly (by appearing for a few rounds to hit them a couple times, then disappearing through/into a wall by the time the party gets organized for the fight). Having something bent on killing you bit by bit can really add to a sense of urgency.

[Lightlawbliss]

...Having something bent on killing you bit by bit can really add to a sense of urgency.

It also makes crazy things like staying in one place for 8 hours really dangerous. (poor spell casters)

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright, so I'd go with old mines being the base of the operation. Classic flavor there, and also a basis for there being an unusual layout (aside from Plot Kitty or bored wizards). Personal favorites for mines are spice mines, a la Star Wars/Chult, where "spice" may mean valuable spices or, more interestingly, narcotic substances. While the mines may be mostly depleted, there are a couple interesting options involving one or two isolated areas where a small group of humanoids (maybe from deep below the ground) work the mines for personal reasons (greed, religion, prospector-mentality). It would make most sense for such humanoids to not be from the surface, and races like deep gnomes (rubies) and deep dwarves would be interesting. Alternately, troglodytes often live underground, and may have primitive mining set up for substances not requiring advanced refining technology.

Abandoned mines indicate a few things: spirits/undead of dead miners, constructs possibly used in mining (automatons from Fiend Folio, I think, or MM2), oozes that feed on vermin, vermin (some insects need almost no organic sustenance or form their own ecosystem out of other insects). A source of light is possible (phosphorescence or bioluminescence are real things and easily ported into a dungeon), or just require/provide light sources. Keep in mind that many of the iconic mining races in D&D barely need light at all and can function quite well in darkness (though they usually keep light/fire around if only to scare off the scarier of the things that dwell in the depths).

Earth elementals can make for mean encounters in underground areas. Fighting a gargantuan creature that can attack from full cover while the characters are stuck in a cramped space (as earthglide could easily imply, given its extremely vague description)? Yeah, that is a good challenge.

If we link the old mines to a series of natural caverns, we open up to normal underground stuff. Ropers are classic and good in larger rooms, and then there is that urothoin or whatever it was (half-illithid roper...might have the name totally wrong). Green slime is a must, such classic flavor, and if the characters don't recognize it and know how to deal, seriously deadly (DMG 76). Brown mold is also interesting, and can survive indefinitely in areas near thermal vents or hot springs). I concur with previous statements that have mentioned Frostburn and Sandstorm for environmental threats; I will add that the FR supplement Underdark is probably the best underground-idea source out there. Don't worry about the title; most of the stuff can be adapted just fine for non-Underdark areas of the underground.