[3.5] Looking for some plot/monster suggestions

[Kobold Esq]

[ Preface: If you play in Chicago on Tuesday nights with a lawyer for a DM, stop reading now. ]


Short version: I'm looking for outsidery/abyssally/unknowable creatures from other dimensions which are an appropriate challenge for a 3rd-4th level party. I plan to have them go through a ruined temple which was built as sort of a "plug" or "lock" over a gate or something. Details are fuzzy, looking for ideas.


Long version:

The party has just hit level 3, and they are about to finish the Sunless Citadel. I've decided that the Hucreles are actually one of multiple large extended influential merchant families with numerous offshoots that collectively rule a nearby city. Kerowyn will direct the young party to the city and suggest that they can seek out work with the "main office."

One of the younger scions of the main family has been, for reasons known only to him and a small number of others, been bankrolling archaeological digs. One of these digs is of a hundreds of years old abandoned/ruined temple complex dedicated to Pelor, the original purpose of which is not clear. The players initially will be hired to recover a non-magical artifact that was stolen from a caravan that was returning from the dig site to the main city. If/when they are successful, they will then be hired to go to the main dig site itself. Strange happens will be occurring there: workers killed, ominous sounds/visions, etc.

My thought is that the temple was originally built to watch over some ancient seal. An entrance to another plane, or perhaps just a "weak spot" in reality that distorts nature around it. Though the temple was abandoned, the wards remained, until the excavation started. The explorers ended up accidentally breaking some seals, and now the entire thing is starting to slowly come loose.

What sort of creatures would be interesting and challenging but not overwhelming for a party of mostly new players? They will likely be level 3 still when they first get to the dig site, and I want them to level up to 4 or 5 in the course of that adventure. Then there will have to be the "figure out how to restore the wards" of course, but that can come later. The party is currently: Rogue 3, Barbarian 3, Ranger2/Fighter1, Druid 3, and Paladin 2/cleric1.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It looks like your party of five PCs have a lot of physical damage, but not much spellcasting or utility.


Ancient Guardians
Stone statues of armored humans, each holding a heavy steel shield and a heavy mace, suddenly come to life and attempt to bar their passage. Use the stats for a Medium Animated Object, but AC is two points higher (16), and stone has Hardness 8 (basically DR 8/-). These will probably take the longest to kill of anything they fight, but they're not too dangerous. These should also have a reasonable chance of defeating anything else encountered, being physically resilient and outright immune to a lot of effects. I'd put two or three of these in a given encounter, and they should be guarding any passage between the different sections of the ruins.

In the beginning there should be a few of those guardians that were destroyed prior to the initial excavations. Fairly early they could find the bones and decayed robes of a dead cleric, guarded by his spirit, which tells them to take his unique holy symbol and show it to the guardians to pass unharmed. He may be able to provide more information to them, or he may turn out to be another villain in disguise. Or maybe they find his remains, and when they try to take the symbol his corrupted spirit attacks them (Cursed Spirit, CR 3, Miniatures Handbook).


Fiendish Codex I and II have quite a few low CR demons and devils. Keep in mind that those two will prioritize fighting and killing each other above all else.

[Bronk]

I like the above idea, and you can follow it up by having the ancient guardians be there to both keep people out and to keep things in.

You might have to prepare them a bit with loot from the previous fights, but I think at least one low level Ekolid would fit pretty well as a harbinger of a weakening seal to your other dimension. As an obyrith, their form is detested by reality, and interacting with them can cause madness. Which is bad, sure, but it's also one of the weakest creatures that has that feature.

Well, that or a gibbering mouther, which only has a 'confusion' effect, but those are pretty easy for a group to take down.

Edit: On the other hand, it would be safer for the party to have a stream of gibbering mouthers showing up from the weakened area, then have something like an Ekolid (maybe advanced by a few HD) actually coming through the seal area by the time they get in.