Good monsters for a flooded city ruin?

[polymphus]

Hey all,

I'm currently trying to design a combat-heavy encounter for my game and I'm kinda stuck on what sort of enemies to include.

Some background about where it's taking place:

In an affluent district of a powerful coastal trade city, something went horribly wrong. The inhabitants were partially-frozen in time for over fifty years, while the city crumbled around them. Thanks to some bumbling adventurers (the PCs), the time-freeze spell has ended.

I say partially-frozen, because while they were paralyzed in place and sleeping, their bodies rotted away. The process of waking up to this was not uh ... great for them, mentally.

While the city has fallen to pieces, its series of canals (it's based on Hanseatic Berlin) have broken and flooded large parts of the district.

In the time the city was frozen, Illithids conquered it, and use it as an above-ground holding. The inhabitants of the frozen area are mostly unaware of this, but it makes sense the Illithids would be making scouting trips into the newly unfrozen district.

I know this about the enemies:

1) they're primarily going to be undead, with some abberations mixed in. These undead are more sentient than zombies, but still aren't the brightest.
2) there's going to be a lot of water and difficult terrain, so it should be stuff to take advantage of that.
3) the party is four lvl5s (Open Palm Monk, Divination Wizard, Celestial Warlock, 'Madness Oath' Paladin which is Devotion with Warlock GOO-ish spells switched in) but they've proven themselves ridiculously good at breaking encounters at the recommended CR so I tend to pitch things on the high side. I've been letting them stack Inspiration and they're just hoarding 'em, so each one has three Inspiration points kicking around.
4) in keeping with 3), I want this to be a multi-stage session -- they've got into the habit of blowing all their abilities the first time they see trouble, because they feel safe knowing there's gonna be maximum one more encounter. I'm aiming for five encounters, of increasing difficulty.

For various reasons, our last session had a lot of jokes about Khajit traders, and I found out my players are all weirdly fond of Tabaxi and Tabaxi merchants specifically. I intend to abuse that -- a small group of Tabaxi merchants decided to do some *coughlootingcough* of the manor houses etc and there's one outside the district who asks them to go help his friends.

Any thoughts about the sort of stuff I could throw at my players? Right now I'm eyeing up a solitary Alhoon in the clocktower of a ruined government building as the final stage but I'm really not sure what to do outside that.

[pastaskamisama]

You could always use Basilisks or a hydra if you want sea serpents, also you could have a group of lizardfolk that hates the tabaxi for some reason, perhaps the cats stole something valuable for their tribe or group or maybe it's just a race thing.

[Rebonack]

Aberrations?

Oh boy.

If you want a fun and memorable monster encounter, I would suggest an Ineffable Horror.

"A mass of something seethes toward you, reality twisting and splintering as it passes. Attempting to describe this Ineffable Horror in concrete terms is an effort in futility. Or perhaps madness."

The Ineffable Horror is immune to status. It's also immune to damage, mostly because it has no hit points. Instead, it has a Perception and Investigation check DC. Using a damaging attack or spell causes the Horror to split, creating two Horrors with half the DC. To destroy a Horror, one of the PCs must make a Perception or Investigation check against a Horror as an Action. If they succeed, that Horror is comprehended and ceases to be.

On a failure: "You attempt to comprehend the horror, but fail. It's too awful for your mind to grasp, causing your psyche to recoil in pain. You take Xd6 Psychic damage."
On a success: "You manage to comprehend the incomprehensible, destroying it through the act of understanding alone."

On attacking the horror: "Your attack passes through the horror, causing it to split equally into two smaller horrors that are otherwise unharmed. You feel as though it's slightly more comprehensible than before, but you still can't make sense of it."

The Ineffable Horror has only one action it can take, Ineffable Attack. Deals psychic damage, Will negates.

On a failure: "You have absolutely no idea what the horror just did, but it really hurt."
On a success: "You were able to comprehend the horror's attack, rendering it harmless."

The goal, then, is to use attacks to split the Horror into manageable sized chunks and then use Perception or Investigation checks to destroy them one piece at a time. Play up the comprehension/incomprehension in the monster's narration to hint the players toward their goal. Make it clear that damage is not actually harming the monster. This would be a nice beasty to have the Illithid drop on the party at some inopportune moment. There's nothing like a warbling denizen of the Far Realm to help the adventurer's reevaluate their career choices.

[Randomthom]

You could easily cook up a new Blight (P32 MM), Seaweed Blight. Take the Vine Blight, give it a swim speed and then tactically, it aims to constrict the PC and hold them below the water.

Chuul obviously fit with your theme but make more sense if there is an Aboleth involved, also a very cool enemy but it depends on the party level as to whether they are an appropriate big bad.

A wandering monster Plesiosaurus could be fun, just to add some fear of going in the deeper water. Only present on the coastal side of the city.

Sea Hag could make an interesting non-combat encounter, perhaps she wants the PCs to kill the Pleisiosaur that keeps hassling her (though, true to their nature, it could simply be her pet that needs feeding).

You mentioned Demons being summoned. Demons + water is likely to draw in Merrow and Ixitxachitl (Can be found in Out of the Abyss appendices) looking to please Demogorgon though the undead link is more likely to invoke Demogorgon's rival Orcus. (All this is assuming you are playing in the forgotten realms of course).

Finally, if in doubt, release the Kraken!

[ZardukZarakhil]

Oh fun some thoughts

Environment -
all buildings are ruins, but have 2 or 3 floors, they block line of sight but add elevation to any battle and most cant be holed up in (requires good Investigation/Perception check to find one suitable for rest opportunity).
canals are found often and have multiple normal looking footbridges crossing them (important lots) all 5ft wide. Canal is unknown depth and not easy to see in, disadvantage on perception checks at the least if not auto hide while submerged.
visibility is key, could say its dark (darkvision could be a hassle though) but best way is to say as its a coastal city there is omnipresent fog/sea mist, visibility is reduced to 30ft, this is important as it prevents players from being super effective at range, may cause problems if they split up during combat and so get out of sight of supporting each other and will prevent them knowing exactly what is coming towards them

For all these emphasise this early and often so they are aware and that its not just when you are setting up an encounter. Get them paranoid!

5 possible encounters?

Encounter 1

10 Sea Spawn (VGTM) describe them shambling out of the fog, giving players time to decide if they want to engage, keep them separated so 1 AOE spell wont get all of them, if no Fireball for example may think of reducing hp by 10 or so.
Make sure to describe the special attack, and that they are zombie like, but this should be a relatively easy encounter and its to suck them in.

Encounter 2

5 Sea Spawn with 3 more turning up every 1d4 rounds, taking a long rest should not be easy so if they try and do so allow them to have a short rest then they have this which stops a long rest from occuring. Repeat this until they retreat, they really set up a perfect long rest opportunity or you have pushed them enough that you let them take a long rest.

Encounter 3

10 Sea Spawn like the first encounter come out the mist, but then as a second wave have 5 more climb out of a canal on a different flank (surprise), this can be repeated if they are coping easily so it appears they are coming from all sides, then as a final wave have a Cave Fisher(s) come from the third story of a ruin building and ambush 1 character (spellcaster or 1 off on its own)

Encounter 4

While crossing a canal bridge (remember you have been describing them so they appear perfectly normal) have a Chuul attack from under the bridge, aiming for unarmoured character, looking to grapple them and pull them back into the canal and underwater, then in subsequent rounds start having 5 Sea Spawn coming in out of the fog on the flanks (if they are struggling, describe it as shadows moving in the fog and delay the Sea Spawn arrival)

Encounter 5

Aquatic Umber Hulk(s) with swim speed replacing burrow (still 20ft) attacks, then after round 1 have 2 or 3 shadows or spectres attack through the ruined walls from the behind or flank of the party, then have the threat of Sea Spawn advancing out of the fog. Possibly reduce Umber Hulks Gaze to DC 14, but the key is to try and get them reacting on multiple fronts.

All of these are to build suspense so take time to describe the atmosphere and surroundings all the time, dont run them back to back, give them exploration time in between the encounters.
the Sea Spawn in all are not supposed to be hard to deal with, they are to soak up actions/resources, if they are finding it really easy just add another wave (always have them approaching out of the fog to give them time to react/retreat), if they are struggling just dont add a wave but say that shadows can be seen in the fog off to one side to add suspense to current fight.
If they are on a search and retrieve mission, may want to run 2 or 3 on the way to site and 1 on way back, key with this is let them retreat if they want to, and try another route, but dont let them nova then rest easily. (when they rest go 'sure' then have one of them roll a d12, no matter what the roll, they gain a short rest then Encounter 2 happens)

Thats how i would do it, not sure if its any help or what you were looking for, but it was pleasant thinking about it :smallsmile:

[Joe the Rat]

My go-to for "sharper than zombies undead mooks" is ghouls and ghasts. Make the appearance is more zombie (and pickled bloated corpse) than bestial. I like throwing in Wights, but they tend to be a little soft for that level of player. For tougher types, some of the NPCs (particularly knight, veteran, spy, and the casters), coupled with undead traits (no eat/sleep/breathe, darkvision, immune to exhaustion, add 1-2 other resistances and immunities as appropriate, zombie fortitude if you are evil) gives you a lot of variety.

Chuul is an aboleth thing (as Randomthom noted), but changing the form to be more "squishy" - leathery slick skin instead of carapace, masses of tentacles instead of claws, maybe a serpent body - would bring back the right aesthetic.

in general, get your ooze on. This is a prime environment for slimes and oozes.

Volo's has some really fun options, particularly blending elements of death and abberation

Sea Spawn (ZardukZarakhil - good eye!) would be good - I like it as a take on not degradation but mutation brought on by the slow time. Having them in service to another entity, or running amok - or hiding morlock-style are all possibilities.

Deep Scions give you another approach to the "aquatic added" - sort of a warlock/mutant, which could tie into the illithid (brainwashed, altered for the environment, powered up), or some other denizen (fluff says kraken, but just about any water nasty would do. Say, a Morkoth taking up residence in the flooded undercity and collecting... well, everything.)

Spawn of Kyuss could be a fun to adapt aquatically, or could be turned to brain worms.

I like repurposing creatures. For example - say some unfortunate experienced a lot of decay, to the point that his body was mostly a juicy skeleton full of festering goo and sea water. Or they were completely submerged the entire time, body full of water. The body dies, and the soul is trapped in a mass of seawater slime - a slithering tracker. Now, just because you're a sentient blob of angry brackwater doesn't mean you can't animate bodies. It basically tries to kill someone, then takes control of the corpse - a zombie that spits murderjelly when it dies!

Oh, and Roper and Froghemoth, because you can never have enough creatures with tentacles that want to eat you, and possibly drown you. You could add strange sea growths - above water corals or monstrous clam beds to give you something to use as a camouflage form.

[excommunicated]

I ran a dungeon in a flooded tower with visibility for 10 feet due to murky water. Players hated it. Even if is only up to their waist, undead electric eels, Zombie giant constrictor snakes and there is a hulking huge crab that is CR 5 in storm kings thunder that could make a good encounter.

[Bloodcloud]

A wraith and his spectres can make an interesting encounter. Use their capacity to pass through walls to harass the party and drain their max hp. Have the fight in a room with blocked windows they can break to get some light in to add cool environmental interaction. Did that in my game, it was quite fun.

[Whit]

I would suggest Cthulhu route. Illithids mind flayers are part the far realm.

The have saughni? Koa toe Frog people servents

I like some of the other above ideas as well for a multi session game.

Diseases bloated zombies low level encounter, either your in a boat and they attack it to pull it over.

Or in a building waste level you see some stand up but a few crawl and attack under water.

Either way Dex checks. In water difficulty movement and minus to hit. They are weak but what makes it better they explode causing disease.
I like the sea hag used for trying to stop the illithids. Gives pc knowledge of what's happening

The tabaxi encounter should be be fun, either trying to steal something from th pc or pc rescue them from an encounter gaining allies for final fight or even that they stole the item the ilitthids need to summon s far realm gate but their leader was caught with th item

An abolithe can be final boss or the ilittids.

[JackPhoenix]

Snip

While awesome idea I'm instantly stealing for my own game, that's not a monster... it's weird trap or magic (psionic?) effect.

[polymphus]

Thanks for your help! I've been running over a bunch of your suggestions and working them into the general vibe of the campaign. This is what I've got so far:


NB: during this session, untransformed Deep Scions will watch the players from the rooftops and windows. They'll try to stay out of sight, and they'll flee if engaged. The only place without them is the botanical gardens (because even they're scared of the bodack).

ENCOUNTER 1

A large horde of regular zombies (30), not too much flooding here. Players are drawn into a central kinda node area with alleys leading to it, then zombies attack from the alleys. Of the 30, 5 zombies are ‘boomers’ -- when killed, they explode. Everything within 5ft must make a DC13 Con save or take 3d6 poison damage and be poisoned for 1 minute. They can roll the save again at the start of each of their turns. Boomers have 15 health and lack the Undead Fortitude feature.

ENCOUNTER 2

A botanical garden area. Players can explore a bit. There’s a solitary bodack stalking our PCs from the greenhouses. Flooding starting to get more serious, and hinder movement. Also a number of Sea Spawn (3) hanging around to complicate things – they’ll also stalk, and attack from water when the bodack engages.

While exploring, there's a bunch of zombi-fied tropical birds that escaped the aviary. They're not hostile, and are in fact oddly beautiful. They will make a lot of noise when the players approach, which can attract attention.

ENCOUNTER 3

The bank. Significant water damage in the vaults. Not a lot of room to move. We meet our first Tabaxi, who is one of the bodyguards (a Knight). He’s being attacked by a group of intellect devourers (3). These ones don’t have big chunk mammal legs – instead, they crawl around like insects. If they try to take over a host, they’ll go in through the mouth. Make sure to mention that they’re weirdly decayed and seem modified. A high arcana check (DC 17) at this point will identify the presence of an experimenting Alhoon somewhere. Also in the attack: cranium rats (NOT a swarm, just a bunch of individual rats), a chuul.

ENCOUNTER 4

The opera house. The rest of the Tabaxi are being kept in chains and cages on the stage, tormented by an ‘Alhoon-Spawn’ (Vampire Spawn). If the PCs approach without checking, another Vampire Spawn will drop down from the fancy seats above. Zombies and Sea Spawn (1d6-1, minimum of 1, coin flip to see which it is) will periodically (every 1d4 turns) rise from the flooded areas in the cheap seats. Make sure to note they’ve been experimented on.

ENCOUNTER 5 (optional)

The Tabaxi fire off their magical flare to let their friend know they’re safe. They mention rumours of an Illithid hanging out in the Clock Tower attached to the old post office. Make sure protags know they can rest up here, or leave if they want to. There’s three more Tabaxi, one of which is a Knight and one of which is a Mage. They'll come with to the post office, as will the one from Encounter 3 if he survived.

It’s an Alhoon, and he’ll make life difficult. The clock tower has a small floorspace, but multiple levels going up (6). The Alhoon can use levitate to navigate more easily, and will try to counterspell movement spells. He’ll use the verticality to keep the team locked down while blasting away.

As he loses health, he'll move up the tower and try to knock out stairs/ladders/ropes etc. The top level accessible (6th floor) is a viewing platform below the clock face. As the tower is leaning at a pretty shocking angle, fighting on the righthand side will require DC12 athletics/acrobatics check (or spells live Levitation) to avoid falling off. Fall damage is reduced to 25% because they're hitting water at the bottom.

The clockface is all lit up thanks to the Alhoon, who has his lab on the 4th and 5th floors. Floors 1-2 are almost entirely flooded, and the PCs will have to swim up. This might grant them some concealment if they're clever, or make them sitting ducks if they're not. The third floor has a number of bear traps and an Alarm spell.

[Kane0]

Perhaps you are familiar with the Drowned?

They are a special sort of zombie. They walk at normal zombie speed but swim fast, they are resistant to fire and have a special attack that drowns victims even on dry land. Something like when you get hit by one you need to make a con save or fail 1 death saving throw, three and you drown to death. Creatures that don't need to breathe or that can breathe water are unaffected.

Chuul, Mongrelfolk, Kuo-Toa and other bestial or aquatic creatures are also good options, as well as nasty pets like sealions, sharks/octupuses and possibly things like aquatic gricks. Other hazards might be things like water wierds and aquatic variants of plant creatures like blights, shambling mounds and tendriculi.

[Rebonack]

While awesome idea I'm instantly stealing for my own game, that's not a monster... it's weird trap or magic (psionic?) effect.

I like to think of it as a very angry skill-challenge encounter.

[polymphus]

It's definitely cool. It doesn't really fit in with the session I'm planning right now, but I've noted it down and I'm saving it for later. It's halfway between a timed-trap and a combat encounter, and it's got a cool Lovecraftian feel.

Ideally for that vibe, I don't think the PCs would beat it -- they'd just learn to manage and survive it long enough to effect their escape. You could have it chase them through a zone and the 'fights' occur when it catches up them.

[ZardukZarakhil]

Looks like a fun set up, if you can let us know how the players do :smallsmile:

[CursedRhubarb]

I've been fond of Otyugh since stumbling across them. CR 5 creatures but they can completely wreck a group that doesn't work together. They've 3 attacks, 1 bite, 2 tentacles (with 10' reach) and auto grapple+restrained on hit, can use a slam instead of a tentacle to force a save or stun. Can hold 2 people in tentacles and bang 'em together, bite causes disease that reduces max HP (when bit and then every 24 hrs) and poisoned condition until cured. Damage +HP max reduction really sucks.

Nasty buggers but relatively low hp so they can be delt with quickly if not caught off guard or you can stay away. I like to use them in pairs in a small-ish area.

Having them do a bite+tentacle+slam combo when only one person is in reach really can put a dent in someone's day as they can become practically helpless until someone draws the creature away, or they get eaten.

[excommunicated]

If you want a fun and memorable monster encounter, I would suggest an Ineffable Horror.

"A mass of something seethes toward you, reality twisting and splintering as it passes. Attempting to describe this Ineffable Horror in concrete terms is an effort in futility. Or perhaps madness."

The Ineffable Horror is immune to status. It's also immune to damage, mostly because it has no hit points. Instead, it has a Perception and Investigation check DC. Using a damaging attack or spell causes the Horror to split, creating two Horrors with half the DC. To destroy a Horror, one of the PCs must make a Perception or Investigation check against a Horror as an Action. If they succeed, that Horror is comprehended and ceases to be.

The goal, then, is to use attacks to split the Horror into manageable sized chunks and then use Perception or Investigation checks to destroy them one piece at a time. Play up the comprehension/incomprehension in the monster's narration to hint the players toward their goal. Make it clear that damage is not actually harming the monster. This would be a nice beasty to have the Illithid drop on the party at some inopportune moment. There's nothing like a warbling denizen of the Far Realm to help the adventurer's reevaluate their career choices.

Sounds interesting to run. How do you feel investigation abilities other than investigation and perception would work to provide more options for characters who have (foolishly) not trained investigation or perception? Characters are not going to instinctively know to use these skills on a 'monster' and hinting to heavily to use these skills seems a bit of a spoiler (Never underestimate how obtuse players can be). Things like Pali Divine Sense, Ranger Favored Enemy intelligence checks, Battle Master's 'Know your Enemy' etc. I feel abilities like these should have an effect, perhaps similar to the skill checks , perhaps providing hints towards the other means to deal with the monster.

Could be like a quantum monster, once you successfully perceve it, it condenses into one location and you can hit it.

[Arc-Royal]

A water weird could be an interesting choice. Invisible while fully immersed in water and has some interesting save-or-secondary-effects on its attack. Also, because they tend to take on the nature of the site they live in and it sounds like some bad juju has gone down over the intervening years, you have a good explanation for one acting in an evil manner.

[Shining Wrath]

Undead sahuagin and merrows?

Refluff snakes as giant slugs?

Dinosaurs?

[kingheff1]

I keep thinking of grell's raising out of the water, covered in weeds and dripping dank water, the visual in my mind seems very cool and creepy to me.

[JackPhoenix]

I keep thinking of grell's raising out of the water, covered in weeds and dripping dank water, the visual in my mind seems very cool and creepy to me.

Grells underwater? That sounds kinda familiar, where did I.....

Oh no... not Tentaculats (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/fe/f9/66/fef966aabf9055ce35b82b8cbcdaa9e4.jpg)! I hated those things! Funnily enough, 3rd picture when googling tentaculats shows grell.