Underwater Aboleth temple ideas.

[MasterMercury]

I'm making a dungeon for my campaign, an abandoned Aboleth temple that over millennia has sunken beneath the waves.

However, I'm having some difficulty filling it. Chuul are the only directly Aboleth-linked creatures I could find, and I have put a few in, along with some traps.

Any ideas/experience? I'm going for a cross between Indiana Jones and H.P. Lovecraft on the tone of the dungeon. Any thoughts are welcomed.

[LudicSavant]

I'm making a dungeon for my campaign, an abandoned Aboleth temple that over millennia has sunken beneath the waves.

However, I'm having some difficulty filling it. Chuul are the only directly Aboleth-linked creatures I could find, and I have put a few in, along with some traps.

Any ideas/experience? I'm going for a cross between Indiana Jones and H.P. Lovecraft on the tone of the dungeon. Any thoughts are welcomed.

Then put the kind of enemies that Indiana Jones and H.P. Lovecraft dungeons have. Nazi cultists.

[Puh Laden]

If you have chuul go Alien for at least a bit of the dungeon.

You can also add kuo-toa. Even better if they're the nazi cultists.

Yes I realize those are contradictory in tone. I don't care.

[Mortis_Elrod]

If you want it really difficult model it after the water temple in LoZ ocarina of time. They'll love and hate you for it.

[Hrugner]

The aboleth are a slave and race making race of creatures, so this is a good opportunity to put in odd ball creatures that seem hand built for a specific purpose. Throw in a gelatinous cube cleaning crew. Put some beholder kin eye of the deep that have been enslaved by the aboleth leaving them as potential allies if freed. Throw in a wide mix of aquatic humanoids enslaved for daily tasks as well.

[MasterMercury]

Then put the kind of enemies that Indiana Jones and H.P. Lovecraft dungeons have. Nazi cultists.

When are there Nazi cultists in Lovecraft stuff? Or does Hellboy count as Lovecraftian?


If you have chuul go Alien for at least a bit of the dungeon.

You can also add kuo-toa. Even better if they're the nazi cultists.

Yes I realize those are contradictory in tone. I don't care.

Originally I was going to have it mostly abandoned, but I guess I could open it up a bit. Maybe the upper levels are fun Kuo-Toa nazi cultists, but they open a forbidden door and then I go Alien with the Chuul.

[Kane0]

Nothics are neat options, possibly spectators too. Most aberrations could fit somehow

[Naanomi]

The top floor should be dry, and filled with 'creepy Dunwich villagers' types

[MasterMercury]

The top floor should be dry, and filled with 'creepy Dunwich villagers' types

I already have a Dunwich village, in the port city close to the Temple.

[Kane0]

Grell, Grick, Otyugh, Oozes, Aquatic plants, Aquatic basilisk, Cave Fishers, Roper, Water Elementals, Merrow

Get creative!

Edit: Piercers that nail their victims to the bottom of flooded sections, drowning them then feeding in peace at the bottom before returning to the roof to wait for more meals to arrive.

[MasterMercury]

Grell, Grick, Otyugh, Oozes, Aquatic plants, Aquatic basilisk, Cave Fishers, Roper, Water Elementals, Merrow

Get creative!

Edit: Piercers that nail their victims to the bottom of flooded sections, drowning them then feeding in peace at the bottom before returning to the roof to wait for more meals to arrive.

I like the Roper/piercer idea.

Any ideas for traps?

I have one idea where there's Aboleth mucus that floats out of a trap door in the ground while they're underwater. The mucus makes it so that they can only breath underwater. Not so deadly then, but when they're escaping the water with something snapping at their heels, it'll be a problem.

[LudicSavant]

When are there Nazi cultists in Lovecraft stuff?

Years after Lovecraft's death, for obvious reasons :smalltongue:

Was referring to their role as Indiana Jones villains, of course, though their occasional obsession with the occult makes them an easy fit in Lovecraftian storytelling.

[MasterMercury]

Years after Lovecraft's death, for obvious reasons :smalltongue:

Was referring to their role as Indiana Jones villains, of course, though their occasional obsession with the occult makes them an easy fit in Lovecraftian storytelling.

Yeah, you're right. I think I'm goin for more of an abandoned feel. A few traps and a few monsters that were trapped in or changed by the evil magic.

[Naanomi]

I already have a Dunwich village, in the port city close to the Temple.
Then Seaspawn, deep scion, and Merrow transformed cultist

[Mortis_Elrod]

have some lizardfolk tribes near it too. They can give some info on the water temple their people never enter. (everything in there is big enough to eat them, should avoid a all costs)

[Kane0]

Traps and hazards... hmmm...

Well theres the obvious flooding room (reverse airlock), thats almost a given. Try spicing it up a little, such as the level requiring the room be half filled with water before you can reach it (unless you can jump/climb really well), and the lever itself both stops the flooding and opens the doors so the resulting current drags the party straight through into something else nasty (Str save to avoid)

Flooded dungeons also mean vertical movement, so 3D traps and hazards become a lot more fun. For example an ooze or other danger released below the party and forcing them to rise, or the reverse to foce them to dive.

Water pressure can also be used with doors to keep them closed or sweep people on the other side away when opened. Lockpicks won't help with that.

Running water makes for an excellent Ooze delivery system, and also helps mask the sound of other approaching threats.

Electrifying water also makes for a nasty surprise, which can make traversing an otherwise normal room a bad idea.

Hiding more mundane trap parts like pressure plates and tripwires in murky water makes them harder to detect and easier to trigger.

A magical trap might turn water to acid or poison, make one vulnerable to other hazards while wet, or remove the ability to breathe air (which is also accomplished using Aboleth Mucus, which should be plentiful).

If you're making a flooded dungeon you want it to be more heavily water themed than a waterslide theme park. Really get that milage out of the less used spells like water breathing, water walking and prestidigitation (for drying off afterwards).

Edit: Don't forget to keep track of how long PCs can hodl their breath :smallamused:. Traps that knock air out of them in addition to damage should be especially interesting.

[Naanomi]

Water dungeons allow for coolness with changes in water levels... either because of tides, or valves or the like... an inaccessible tunnel until you can swim to it? A time limit room where flooding will drive you out of you don't accomplish your goal fast enough?

[Zanthy1]

Gnomes. Just piles of gnomes. Gnomes with hats, gnomes with gardens, gnomes riding dogs. Gnomes.