Dralnu
2015-07-28, 10:28 PM
This is for an upcoming free adventure. I have a sweet idea in my head but I had some difficulty wording it. Please help me out by telling me if you, as a potential DM, could read this and understand what's happening and in turn convey it to your players. Or if you have suggestions on making this encounter clearer!
7. SOUTHERN CHASM
The arcane fire that ravaged Rune’s Hollow during the Unravelling left two gaping chasms deep in the mountain, this one and the chasm in area 9. The Myststone's influence crystallized the fire into what is now called azureflame crystals, which are embedded in the chasm’s walls.
A dim blue glow emanates up ahead from beyond the tunnel. You hear the distinct clanging of numerous pickaxes echoing in the distance. As you reach the end of the tunnel, you're confronted with a vast chasm that stretches 100 feet wide, with a steep drop that swallowed up by the darkness. Sprinkled over the chasm’s walls are glowing blue crystals, twinkling softly with an inner flame, like blue stars in a night sky.
Hanging by the edge of the tunnel in front of you is a wooden cube suspended by thick iron chains by its four corners, hanging from a ceiling 30 feet above that is completely covered by a mess of strange metal gears and rails. The cube’s 20 foot top surface hangs at the same height as tunnel’s floor, allowing you to step on to it easily. Four iron levers are bolted on to the cube’s top surface. All along the chasm's walls are more of these wooden cubes suspended at various heights, with small reptilian humanoids standing atop them, chipping away at the blue crystals with pickaxes and loading the gems into the cube’s hollow interior. Across the chasm, 10 feet down and 20 feet to the left, is another tunnel.
USING THE CUBES
The cubes are used by the kobolds to access the azureflame crystals embedded into the chasm walls. Each cube has four mechanical levers, one to go up/down, left/right, forward/back, and a final lever raises the sides of the cube for easy access of the cube's interior. Only one lever can be used at a time; the others are locked in place during use. When a lever is pulled, the cube moves in the corresponding direction 10 feet per round (six seconds). The metal cogs and gears on the ceiling grind and click as the iron chains suspending the cube moves it along. The adventurers can use this cube to traverse the chasm and get to the tunnel on the other side.
The cubes are hollow: a trapdoor on its top side allows access to the interior of the cube, which is used to transport the crystals being mined on the chasm walls. A rope ladder descends from the trapdoor down to the cube's bottom. Characters checking inside the interior notice the glowing remnants of azureflame crystals: three thumb-sized crystals (see Appendix A) can be collected here.
WORKING MINERS
These hollow cubes are loaded up with azureflame crystals as the kobolds chip them off the walls for easy transportation up to the main tunnel, where the crystals are then loaded into mining carts and transported to the assayer’s office near the mine’s entrance. There are about fifteen kobolds working here at a time, mining the azureflame crystals and transporting them up to the main tunnel.
Observant characters watching the workers for a while can piece together their regular routine:
1. Using the levers, the kobolds move their wooden cubes from tunnel entrances to a patch of azureflame crystals embedded along the chasm walls.
2. The workers mine the azureflame crystals, dropping them inside the cube through the trapdoor.
3. Once the cube is filled, the kobolds use the levers again to move the cube back to the tunnel, raising the side of the cube while other workers inside the tunnel unload the crystals. Then the process begins again.
CAUGHT UNAWARE
If the alarm is not raised, they focus all attention on their work. Their work distracts them from spotting any characters snooping about, dropping their passive Perception down to 6. As long as the adventurers make some attempt to conceal themselves and don’t cause a commotion, they should pass by unnoticed.
READY FOR ACTION
If the kobolds spot the PCs traveling on a cube, they raise the alarm if it isn’t already raised and engage in battle. Below is an idea of how the battle plays out, but you may need to modify things based on the party's previous actions:
Round 1: Six kobold miners on two nearby cubes (three on each) move their cubes on an intercept course to the party, attacking the characters with their slings as they close the distance.
Round 2: Two winged kobolds stationed at the tunnel entrance fly over to the party, throwing rocks and engaging in melee to trigger Pack Tactics for their allies.
Round 3: Two more winged kobolds arrive from Area 6 carrying a rust monster and with the intent of dropping the monster on the PC’s cube before engaging in melee. The half-starved rust monster immediately goes to consume the iron chains; its hunger makes it hell-bent on feeding using its Antennae attack. Two hits of the Antennae attack destroys an iron chain: if that happens, each creature standing atop the cube must make a DC 10 Dexterity check or fall prone and slide five feet towards the direction of the broken chain; movement on the cube becomes difficult terrain. Any subsequent destroyed chain requires another Dexterity check, the DC going up an additional 2 each time. If all four chains are destroyed, the cube drops 60 feet to the waters below, dealing 6d6 falling damage to anyone still on the cube; this damage can be mitigated by making an Athletics or Acrobatics check (character's choice) and subtracting the total damage by the result of the check as the character manages to land in the water to mitigate damage.
Round 4: Two more winged kobolds arrive from Area 6 carrying a rust monster; same as Round 3.
DEVELOPMENTS
The chasm goes down sixty feet to an underground stream at the bottom. Characters searching the waters can make an Intelligence (Investigation) check to look for anything of note amongst the underwater rubble: a result of 12 or more finds a narrow underwater tunnel (FILL IN LATER); a result of 15 or more additionally finds (INSERT TREASURE HERE).
A big wooden cube serves as a platform for the PCs to get across a big chasm. If the alarm isn't raised and they aren't spotted, they can pass by without issue. If they're spotted, combat can happen on the cube, rust monsters are dropped to eat the chain holding up the cube and plunge the PCs to their death.
7. SOUTHERN CHASM
The arcane fire that ravaged Rune’s Hollow during the Unravelling left two gaping chasms deep in the mountain, this one and the chasm in area 9. The Myststone's influence crystallized the fire into what is now called azureflame crystals, which are embedded in the chasm’s walls.
A dim blue glow emanates up ahead from beyond the tunnel. You hear the distinct clanging of numerous pickaxes echoing in the distance. As you reach the end of the tunnel, you're confronted with a vast chasm that stretches 100 feet wide, with a steep drop that swallowed up by the darkness. Sprinkled over the chasm’s walls are glowing blue crystals, twinkling softly with an inner flame, like blue stars in a night sky.
Hanging by the edge of the tunnel in front of you is a wooden cube suspended by thick iron chains by its four corners, hanging from a ceiling 30 feet above that is completely covered by a mess of strange metal gears and rails. The cube’s 20 foot top surface hangs at the same height as tunnel’s floor, allowing you to step on to it easily. Four iron levers are bolted on to the cube’s top surface. All along the chasm's walls are more of these wooden cubes suspended at various heights, with small reptilian humanoids standing atop them, chipping away at the blue crystals with pickaxes and loading the gems into the cube’s hollow interior. Across the chasm, 10 feet down and 20 feet to the left, is another tunnel.
USING THE CUBES
The cubes are used by the kobolds to access the azureflame crystals embedded into the chasm walls. Each cube has four mechanical levers, one to go up/down, left/right, forward/back, and a final lever raises the sides of the cube for easy access of the cube's interior. Only one lever can be used at a time; the others are locked in place during use. When a lever is pulled, the cube moves in the corresponding direction 10 feet per round (six seconds). The metal cogs and gears on the ceiling grind and click as the iron chains suspending the cube moves it along. The adventurers can use this cube to traverse the chasm and get to the tunnel on the other side.
The cubes are hollow: a trapdoor on its top side allows access to the interior of the cube, which is used to transport the crystals being mined on the chasm walls. A rope ladder descends from the trapdoor down to the cube's bottom. Characters checking inside the interior notice the glowing remnants of azureflame crystals: three thumb-sized crystals (see Appendix A) can be collected here.
WORKING MINERS
These hollow cubes are loaded up with azureflame crystals as the kobolds chip them off the walls for easy transportation up to the main tunnel, where the crystals are then loaded into mining carts and transported to the assayer’s office near the mine’s entrance. There are about fifteen kobolds working here at a time, mining the azureflame crystals and transporting them up to the main tunnel.
Observant characters watching the workers for a while can piece together their regular routine:
1. Using the levers, the kobolds move their wooden cubes from tunnel entrances to a patch of azureflame crystals embedded along the chasm walls.
2. The workers mine the azureflame crystals, dropping them inside the cube through the trapdoor.
3. Once the cube is filled, the kobolds use the levers again to move the cube back to the tunnel, raising the side of the cube while other workers inside the tunnel unload the crystals. Then the process begins again.
CAUGHT UNAWARE
If the alarm is not raised, they focus all attention on their work. Their work distracts them from spotting any characters snooping about, dropping their passive Perception down to 6. As long as the adventurers make some attempt to conceal themselves and don’t cause a commotion, they should pass by unnoticed.
READY FOR ACTION
If the kobolds spot the PCs traveling on a cube, they raise the alarm if it isn’t already raised and engage in battle. Below is an idea of how the battle plays out, but you may need to modify things based on the party's previous actions:
Round 1: Six kobold miners on two nearby cubes (three on each) move their cubes on an intercept course to the party, attacking the characters with their slings as they close the distance.
Round 2: Two winged kobolds stationed at the tunnel entrance fly over to the party, throwing rocks and engaging in melee to trigger Pack Tactics for their allies.
Round 3: Two more winged kobolds arrive from Area 6 carrying a rust monster and with the intent of dropping the monster on the PC’s cube before engaging in melee. The half-starved rust monster immediately goes to consume the iron chains; its hunger makes it hell-bent on feeding using its Antennae attack. Two hits of the Antennae attack destroys an iron chain: if that happens, each creature standing atop the cube must make a DC 10 Dexterity check or fall prone and slide five feet towards the direction of the broken chain; movement on the cube becomes difficult terrain. Any subsequent destroyed chain requires another Dexterity check, the DC going up an additional 2 each time. If all four chains are destroyed, the cube drops 60 feet to the waters below, dealing 6d6 falling damage to anyone still on the cube; this damage can be mitigated by making an Athletics or Acrobatics check (character's choice) and subtracting the total damage by the result of the check as the character manages to land in the water to mitigate damage.
Round 4: Two more winged kobolds arrive from Area 6 carrying a rust monster; same as Round 3.
DEVELOPMENTS
The chasm goes down sixty feet to an underground stream at the bottom. Characters searching the waters can make an Intelligence (Investigation) check to look for anything of note amongst the underwater rubble: a result of 12 or more finds a narrow underwater tunnel (FILL IN LATER); a result of 15 or more additionally finds (INSERT TREASURE HERE).
A big wooden cube serves as a platform for the PCs to get across a big chasm. If the alarm isn't raised and they aren't spotted, they can pass by without issue. If they're spotted, combat can happen on the cube, rust monsters are dropped to eat the chain holding up the cube and plunge the PCs to their death.