Steampunk / Clockwork dungeon ideas

[SpamCreateWater]

I'm doing a one-shot as part of a mini-campaign to explain a party member's absence (their player has been overseas for half a year).

In world the character has left to travel with a mentor. One of their jobs, and where this one-shot comes in, is to locate an artifact infused with dark magic. The artifact is located within a hidden mini-dungeon near a "Mechanomancer's" tomb (think Clockwork / Steampunk). The artifact, upon being recovered, will be given to another character taking part in the one-shot.

There are 3 characters, they are all level 4:

Warlock - Pact of the Tome, ??? Patron

Knows the location of the tomb.
Rogue - Arcane Trickster

Rogue's group was approached by the Warlock, who said they wanted to create a working relationship with them. They're funding the expedition.
Wizard - Clockwork domain

Hired by the Rogue's group due to his expertise in this rare area.


The Rogue's group gets first dibs on anything the Rogue deems to be too dark AND powerful - they are an anti-doomsday cult and are chasing an escapee who is thought will bring about the end of the world.
Apart from that, the 'loot' will be split 3-ways.

In light of this information, what challenges/rewards spring to mind? The usual DM for this world isn't shy about handing out magical items - bonus points for interesting ones, whether or not they're in the book with magical items in them. An example of one item from another campaign was a shard of 'blue ice' that never melted, and could be crafted into a weapon that dealt non-magical cold damage on hit.

As far as challenges go:

There will be ~5 encounters.
I'm not sold on having a 'boss' battle.
I don't want to make it completely puzzle or combat based. A mix would be preferable.
They've all got 10-12 CON so the group doesn't seem like they'll be able to take a hit; unless the Clockwork Wizard has some ability to control basic machines (who 'tank' for them)... I'm thinking some limited use item to take control of basic mechanical units to give to the Wizard so they're able to fight the inevitable clockwork guardians.
Perhaps I could create a weakness in some of the guardians, so that the Rogue and Warlock can use Mage Hand / Eldritch Blast to temporarily 'deactivate' them.

[Rogue_1]

Well. . .the first thing that springs to mind is probably the Apparatus of Kwalish. A legendary item that acts as a tanky, feral submarine loaded with metal plates, springs and portholes? Definitely steampunky. Still, the party is only 4th level, so giving them a legendary item won't work, if you're doing a one-shot campaign, for terms of quick scaling, one-upmanship among the party, and how all the encounters will get ripped apart as the warlock and the wizard come in riding around a giant mechanical crab and the rogue runs around manically laughing his head off. Perhaps a bit of a tone-down. You could lower the health and AC while applying a penalty to damage, speed, and maneuverability? Because, well, it has been lying at the bottom of a dungeon where the only potential pilots are monsters or incapable mechanical guardians.
A few other things;
- Adamantine Armor made from scrap metal that belches smoke?
- An Animated Shield "backpack" (when activated, the shield detaches and proceeds to use a mechanical arm to quickly reposition itself)
- An Arrow-Catching Shield (uses an embedded selective magnet to attract fast-moving projectiles within range)
- Boots of Striding and Springing (metal boots that use springs and pulleys to magnify jumping and running)
- Daern's Instant Fortress (unfolds with lots of smoke, noise, ropes, and gears)
- Eyes of Minute Seeing (swiveling magnifying lenses for that steampunk feel)
- Eyes of the Eagle (see above)
- Flame Tongue (squeezing a rubber valve in the sword pommel sprays the blade with oil, allowing you to light it)
- Goggles of Night (refracting green, night-vision type lenses)
- Ioun Stones (could orbit head via rotating metal frame)
- Iron Bands of Bilarro (unfold and entrap with a burst of steel, gears, smoke, and patched-together rope components, perhaps easier to break)
- Javelin of Lightning (a highly conductive steel rod usable only outside; one use during a storm)
- Necklace of Fireballs (a necklace of frayed rope upon which several small, black, beeping orbs are tied)
- Periapt of Wound Close (when you are critically injured, a group of spider-like drones emerge from the amulet to crawl over your wounds, binding them with an alchemical solvent)
- Saddle of the Cavalier (metal braces lock around your legs with a burst of smoke, trailing fog as you ride)
- Scimitar of Speed (the holding of a metal button, for the bonus action, increases the density and momentum of the blade, which allows for the extra "attacks")
- Sending Stones (similar to a modern telephone, except with big mouth-horns connected via rubber/yarn reverberating ropes; this may confuse the message)
- Staff of Fire (a throbbing metal pole that sporadically spurts flame from big valves in the tip)
- Sun Blade (uses a series of magnifying lenses and mirrors to create a short blade of burning radiance; usable only in bright light)
- Sword of Wounding (on a hit, a small, chainsaw-like tread turns on, chewing on their skin to cause bleeding wounds)
- Wand of Wonder (looks steampunk enough already XD)

Phew, that took forever. I hope you find that useful for your adventure and I wish you a great day steampunking!

[SpamCreateWater]

Well. . .the first thing that springs to mind is probably the Apparatus of Kwalish. A legendary item that acts as a tanky, feral submarine loaded with metal plates, springs and portholes? Definitely steampunky. Still, the party is only 4th level, so giving them a legendary item won't work, if you're doing a one-shot campaign, for terms of quick scaling, one-upmanship among the party, and how all the encounters will get ripped apart as the warlock and the wizard come in riding around a giant mechanical crab and the rogue runs around manically laughing his head off. Perhaps a bit of a tone-down. You could lower the health and AC while applying a penalty to damage, speed, and maneuverability? Because, well, it has been lying at the bottom of a dungeon where the only potential pilots are monsters or incapable mechanical guardians.
A few other things;
- Adamantine Armor made from scrap metal that belches smoke?
- An Animated Shield "backpack" (when activated, the shield detaches and proceeds to use a mechanical arm to quickly reposition itself)
- An Arrow-Catching Shield (uses an embedded selective magnet to attract fast-moving projectiles within range)
- Boots of Striding and Springing (metal boots that use springs and pulleys to magnify jumping and running)
- Daern's Instant Fortress (unfolds with lots of smoke, noise, ropes, and gears)
- Eyes of Minute Seeing (swiveling magnifying lenses for that steampunk feel)
- Eyes of the Eagle (see above)
- Flame Tongue (squeezing a rubber valve in the sword pommel sprays the blade with oil, allowing you to light it)
- Goggles of Night (refracting green, night-vision type lenses)
- Ioun Stones (could orbit head via rotating metal frame)
- Iron Bands of Bilarro (unfold and entrap with a burst of steel, gears, smoke, and patched-together rope components, perhaps easier to break)
- Javelin of Lightning (a highly conductive steel rod usable only outside; one use during a storm)
- Necklace of Fireballs (a necklace of frayed rope upon which several small, black, beeping orbs are tied)
- Periapt of Wound Close (when you are critically injured, a group of spider-like drones emerge from the amulet to crawl over your wounds, binding them with an alchemical solvent)
- Saddle of the Cavalier (metal braces lock around your legs with a burst of smoke, trailing fog as you ride)
- Scimitar of Speed (the holding of a metal button, for the bonus action, increases the density and momentum of the blade, which allows for the extra "attacks")
- Sending Stones (similar to a modern telephone, except with big mouth-horns connected via rubber/yarn reverberating ropes; this may confuse the message)
- Staff of Fire (a throbbing metal pole that sporadically spurts flame from big valves in the tip)
- Sun Blade (uses a series of magnifying lenses and mirrors to create a short blade of burning radiance; usable only in bright light)
- Sword of Wounding (on a hit, a small, chainsaw-like tread turns on, chewing on their skin to cause bleeding wounds)
- Wand of Wonder (looks steampunk enough already XD)

Phew, that took forever. I hope you find that useful for your adventure and I wish you a great day steampunking!



Wow. Thank you. I like these reward ideas, definitely clicking in with things I had envisioned :smallsmile:

[smcmike]

Clockwork dungeons call out for integration of combat and puzzling. Clockwork guardians often act on tight scripts, which the players can learn and use to their advantage.

- the bots might ignore anyone who is carrying the appropriate pass, which would vary by area of the dungeon
- if the dungeon is OLD, some of the bots may have malfunctioned in interesting ways. A guardbot may now simply be destroying anything that moves, including other bots, for instance.
- the players may find a bot that they can reprogram using a skill challenge/puzzle.
- they could run into some truly sentient bots somewhere - either a Wall-E low-level bot that attained sentience by some trick of fate, or perhaps some brilliant clockwork computer who has been stuck (being immobile) playing chess against itself for 10,000 years.

[tieren]

I think of those robot kits my kids had to build machines with different sensors, some responded to sound some responded to movement or could follow a line visually.

Maybe some of the guardians respond to sound stimuli so they could stealth past if they could be quiet enough, or they could build a sound generator to draw them into another room.

Maybe some respond visually and an invisibility spell or fog cloud could get the party past.

Maybe a room has multiple kinds of guardians but the party can manipulate a water wheel or steam valve to move a gantry holding a catwalk and thereby choose the path across the room and the guardians they will meet, etc...

I like the apparatus of kwalish idea, maybe make it so they can use it in the dungeon but there is no way to get it out. Final valve they must activate is in a flooded chamber. The party must access the chamber through a small hatch and vertical ladder, on a ledge above the flooded portion they find the apparatus and must use it to go find the valve and activate it, but won't be able to get the apparatus back up the ladder/hatch.

[Nidgit]

Aside from the regular clockbots, you can make a murderous one (or two) really creepy with the right setting. Fluff a Helmed Horror into a woodsman or something and then give it some low lighting and heavy cover to implacably stalk the party. Focus on the short, steady swish or clicks the axe makes as it steadily chops back and forth. Set it on wheels and have them squeak eerily in the darkness when it's close. Alternatively, the wheels make no noise and it just moves about with uncanny speed. And when you finally reveal the face, describe a frozen expression that clashes with murderous eyes that radiate malice.

An Iron Golem is also a very thematically appropriate puzzle for that you could do a lot with. You could have the party sneak by it, appease it, or even activate it to perform a task.

[jaappleton]

I see a topic with 'Steampunk' in the title. Yet user Steampunkette hasn't posted yet.

What bizarro universe is this?!

Anyways, lots of gearwork traps. Lots of them. Like, make Indiana Jones pale in comparison.