Things to encounter on a lost continent ruled by LN puppetmaster gods?

[weckar]

Getting a little stuck here. My players are descending down into a lost land that sank down into a crater and is now supposedly uninhabited. Their ultimate quest is to travel to its center where a temple lies which is the birthplace of a pantheon of LN puppetmaster demigods.
The only thing I've established for now is that due to extremely poor visibility they will need a magic lantern to see by.

I can't really think of any legitimate threats or obstacles for them to encounter along the way, though. I was at first just thinking about tipping some encounter tables from Eberron's Mournland but I feel they have outlevelled that (lv 8 going on 9) and one player in particular is very familiar with that setting. Still, a good place to start from design wise.

Any help or insights would be great, because I am stumped.

[Particle_Man]

Constructs that look like giant puppets?

[weckar]

...puppetmaster is not literal.

[Mnemius]

Constructs, automatons of some sort? (those clockwork things?).

Restless undead and souls of all those lost when the continent sunk? (if it's all foggy, incorporeal things that blend into the mist sound... nasty)

Elementals, and other outsiders bound by the puppetmasters?

Animated puppetstrings and shackles?

[rel]

My answer depends on what kind of game you are running.

Is the party failing to reach the center of the crater and being driven back by monsters and obstacles an acceptable outcome or not?

[weckar]

Is the party failing to reach the center of the crater and being driven back by monsters and obstacles an acceptable outcome or not? Entirely. No coddling. If they overcome it, great. If not, they will probably find a way around the problem.

[Kyutaru]

Dinosaurs.

Living, breathing dinosaurs.


Also some stranded scientists.

[weckar]

Huh. I forgot D&D has stats for dinosaurs. Never used them.

That's an amazing "why not" scenario.

[GrayDeath]

Dont forget the half construct Reptiloid Riders of said Dinosaurs, seeming chaotic and warli9ke, but in truth being the true "fingers of the puppetmasters. ;)

[StevenC21]

The inner monster in me says Anaxim.

[Particle_Man]

Maybe use critters from magic of incarnum and make the temple house the Sapphire Eidelon and be served by Sapphire Heirarchs?

[liquidformat]

Dinosaurs in a lost world are rather expected...

Clockwork horrors might be a cool choice, go for a stargate replicator knockoff vibe.

In general if you are going for puppetmaster gods, constructs, living constructs, half constructs, and undead seem like great choices.

Having Fleshwarpers from lords of madness also seem like a good choice.

Alternatively you could go with Aboleths, beholders, and mindflayers as the three main factions each with their own slave packs of humanoids to do their bidding. It is a bit of a spin from puppet master. Having thrallherds and mindbenders would be a good choice here and even necromancers wouldn't be a bad idea...

[Particle_Man]

How about effigy dinosaurs? Best of both worlds!

[rel]

Entirely. No coddling. If they overcome it, great. If not, they will probably find a way around the problem.

Cool. Hexcrawl design then.
Individual encounters need not be interesting but you want the encounter table as a whole to be varied enough to not get dull and threatening enough to be meaningful since you are going to spam it.

Factions are good. Enemies smart enough that they *might* not want to fight every time and can be played against each other / meaningfully interacted with.
Enemies that are lawful or interact with darkness in an interesting way seem like a good bet.

For factions pick two or 3 of the following: Medusa's, hags, vampires if you don't mind the work of stating them, devils, formians...
Then add a blindsighted slave race for everyone to bully, leveled grimlocks maybe or ogres or trolls with blindsight for reasons.

Use the factions to fill half the list while the other half can be solitary enemies like light fearing undead, blindsighted gribblies like slimes and destrachan, lawful outsiders like inevitables and so on.

[Dalmosh]

Sounds like a good place for Myconids. They're lawful and live underground in dark damp places, communicate only by pumping psychedlic spores into the air and animate the dead into fungus zombies.
What's not to like?

[weckar]

Unfortunately Myconids have already popped up elsewhere to be the muscle for some fey.

[unseenmage]

Psionics sounds like a good neutral fit for puppet-master-ey shenaniganery.

Living Spells of Scrying type spells that seem relatively harmless at first but later turn out to be the minions of an oozemaster who uses these weak divinatory oozes to learn the weaknesses and relationship flaws of invaders.


Mirror Pland denizens are N. Could have a lost city of Nerra. That gleaming ruin wasn't gilded in platinum but in mirrored glass and polished tin.

And now mirror duplicates stalk the party. What's worse, every floor of the temple spawns a new group of duplicates, and they're working together.

On top of that, there are strange seemingly useless amulets strewn about. They're clearly magical but dont seem to DO anything.
The amulets aren't for the invaders... they allow the mirror duplicates to leave the temple (mirror plane) without shattering into nothing. Freeing them to wreak havoc on the PCs home lives.

An ancient Nerra wizard resides at the core of the ruin. If placated they can reign in the escaped duplicates (who knows how many got away!). If angered the wizard instead turns the floor into many mirrors of opposition and conjures Simulacrum and Uce Assassins of the party.

And the wizard is actually a greater doppelganger. Just because.