PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Need some inspiration and ideas for a dungeon complex to prove dwarvishness



dropbear8mybaby
2017-04-24, 10:53 PM
Technically this is for 5e but I'm not looking so much for rules input as just some ideas to get me going as I'm having a bit of a brain fart over the last week or so.

Currently the form this is going to take is that it's a dungeon complex that all leads to a forge on the other side of a lava wall. The lava wall is basically just lava pouring out in a fairly constant stream across a wide area (about a 100 feet across) and forming a river below. Short of immunity to fire damage, you're not getting through that wall. Even if you had fire resistance, the damage would be far too great to withstand for any mortal.

The trick is to fix the iron golem and command it to walk into the lava and stand on a stone dais that is only barely poking above the surface of the lava river. It's weight pushes the dais down just enough that the flow from above is mechanically blocked by a stone shutter. This activation also lights the forge (the lava is redirected), so even if they can get past the lava flow by magic, they still need to activate the golem to light the forge.

Throughout the dungeon complex there are ingredients, traps, puzzles, and instructions that require smithing, masonry and brewing expertise to solve or gain or understand. All of which, when put together gives you the last missing component to bring the iron golem alive and command it to perform this one task before it deactivates itself.

Now, the trouble I'm having is in designing these bits to form a coherent whole. I just need some inspiration and a brain kickstart. Any ideas?

ShedShadow
2017-04-25, 05:59 AM
Try going for a riddle that they found on a map of the place (hobbit style) telling them that it has to do with the golem. Have the golem have several keyholes or whatever labeled the appropriate things (key of the master smither, key of the master mason, key of the master brewer).

You could try already having a part of the golem that needs to be fixed outside of it when they encounter the golem, make it obvious it is broken and fixing it will make the golem function.

Beleriphon
2017-04-25, 12:41 PM
Try going for a riddle that they found on a map of the place (hobbit style) telling them that it has to do with the golem. Have the golem have several keyholes or whatever labeled the appropriate things (key of the master smither, key of the master mason, key of the master brewer).

You could try already having a part of the golem that needs to be fixed outside of it when they encounter the golem, make it obvious it is broken and fixing it will make the golem function.

I'd personally suggest missing parts if you want to fix the golem, but make it obviously missing parts. Like a head, and both arms. Or a missing control gem in the middle of the chest.