Creative Challenge: Whats in this old ruin?

[Cyclops08]

Your players are in a lost ancient city, overgrown to the extend that the still standing ruins are nearly hidden. But this one stands out.
Looks like a stone gazebo. what will the player find if they walk up the steps?

This is not a dungeon, the very area they are in is the dungeon. this is just an encounter, another room.
Be creative. What will your players find?

https://i.postimg.cc/Rh0cTh6b/ruins.jpg

[JoeJ]

A GAZEBO!!!! (https://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jul/gazebo.html) Oh no! Run away! Run away!

[Agrippa]

A small clutch of stone masks (https://jojo.fandom.com/wiki/Stone_Mask).

[stoutstien]

A Trent and a satyr engaged in a debate over the concept of free will.

[Expired]

Your players are in a lost ancient city, overgrown to the extend that the still standing ruins are nearly hidden. But this one stands out.
Looks like a stone gazebo. what will the player find if they walk up the steps?

This is not a dungeon, the very area they are in is the dungeon. this is just an encounter, another room.
Be creative. What will your players find?

https://i.postimg.cc/Rh0cTh6b/ruins.jpg
The area between the archways is an invisible portal that astrally projects anyone who walks through it to a depiction of the ruins in their prime and subsequent destruction which ends and returns them to an empty gazebo. Bonus points if the astral projection fits into your dungeon somehow by revealing clues to traps/puzzles or a hint to the location of hidden treasure (maybe have people rushing to hide a conspicuous box/chest and allow the party to find it should they go to the exact location in the present time).

[Sam113097]

Inside the gazebo, everything appears normal, but when you look out between its pillars, you see back in time, and catch glimpses of the ancient city before it was left in ruins. You could tie this vision into a puzzle or make it a major clue in progressing through the city or finding a magic item.

[Snowbluff]

Or... they find themselves! The Gazebo is actually the remains of an old time wizard's lab, and they must find out how to prevent their own deaths.

[MrStabby]

A pattern of scorch-marks on the floor that eerily resemble the face of one of the PCs.

A small pile of discarded food and clothing all almost rotten to dust... with the exception of a single apple that seems as fresh as the day it came from the tree.

Two small pillars on opposite ends of the room. On each pillar is a single small, low denomination silver coin. On closer inspection the coins appear identical on one side, down to the finest of scratches. Whilst turning the coin over in your hand you notice that the rear face of the coin displayed a different monarch on one of the turns. That face does not seem to come back again.

There is nothing inside. As you turn to leave there, is a sound, just at the edge of hearing, of someone screaming and cursing your name. A search reveals the sounds emanating from a small crack running up the rear wall. Looking into the crack reveals nothing, but there is a very faint smell of sulphur in the area.

[Expired]

The area between the archways is an invisible portal that astrally projects anyone who walks through it to a depiction of the ruins in their prime and subsequent destruction which ends and returns them to an empty gazebo. Bonus points if the astral projection fits into your dungeon somehow by revealing clues to traps/puzzles or a hint to the location of hidden treasure (maybe have people rushing to hide a conspicuous box/chest and allow the party to find it should they go to the exact location in the present time).


Inside the gazebo, everything appears normal, but when you look out between its pillars, you see back in time, and catch glimpses of the ancient city before it was left in ruins. You could tie this vision into a puzzle or make it a major clue in progressing through the city or finding a magic item.
A simple "I agree" would have sufficed as that is exactly what I suggested; just worded differently—the challenge was to be creative.

[Laserlight]

Inside the gazebo is a bathing pool, full of water that is clear although it does have a few bits of debris in it. The inside of the pool has a stylized mosaic depicting maidens sporting with lions (if there's a sphinx around), horses (centaurs), vultures (harpies), or whatever. In the inside of the dome is a painting of relevant gods. The "water" in the pool might actually be water (in which case a predator might be waiting nesrby) or a gelatinous Cube.

[daremetoidareyo]

A waist high countertop in the center of the gazebo. Behind it is a plant creature. It's obviously a plant creature. It is staring at you. It has planty eyes on a planty head on a planty neck on planty shoulders. It's got potatoes for feet.

Between each stone pillar along the 16 sided structure, an array of prisms, painted glasses, and crystalline lenses are suspended between the ceiling and floor. This creates an effect of creating colored light beams that converge on dinner plate sized circles on the central counter top.

The planttendant directs the PCs to try the new best seller, entitled "Cyan thrum." The cost to try it or any of the beams of light is to rub this lidded ceramic bowl of yellow powder all over your head. The plantendant watches eagerly if any of the PCs do it, offering all sorts of helpful tips to maximize coverage over the head and penetration into the hair. When the PCs finish, the planttendant lights up a pipe, into which it had placed a single clump of coal. The powder can be anything you want, but my suggestion is to just make it be pollen. The plantendant's pollen. Which is harmless onless someone has an allergenic backstory.

Anyways each beam of light is a photosynthetic "flavor" each with mild psychotropic effects, if for some reason, you are a sentient plant. There's probably a minor euphoric effect that lasts a plant critter for a day or two (advantage on charisma or willpower saves or something like that)

Non sentient plants may observe some interesting characteristics under the light beam, say patterns that you couldn't see under other light conditions, or magic auras, or whatever your narrative needs might be.

But non plant folk just sort of stick their hand into a beam of light. If feels like true daylight, so if they're a vampire that could stink. If they're light complected and leave unexposed skin there for 30-45 minutes, they will slightly tan. But mostly, this is just a light bar for seedy plants.

When the PCs leave, the planttendant tells the party to come back anytime. One of the PCs overhear the plantentand smirk to himself, "haha suckers."

[terodil]

Once a player enters the gazebo, they are replaced by their evil twin, while their real selves are sent to a pocket plane where they'll have to solve some riddle or best some monster (djinn?) to escape. Whoever did not go in also has a chance to pull them back by spotting the change and explicitly calling them out for not being their real selves, which breaks the spell.

Alternatively, and sticking with the evil twin idea, the evil twins will simply appear behind them (maybe as high-level illusions), which they'll have to defeat in a mirror-fight.

Finally, still sticking with the idea, the evil twins that pop up are glamoured ghosts of the place that could not find peace (and that are somewhat weak in combat). The players can 'kill' them for a brief time, but they can never really die and will come back a short time after, because they're bound to the place. The players will need to find out their story (e.g. by retrieving bits and pieces that are connected to the ghosts' memories) and solve a few minor riddles to give them peace.

[Magicspook]

The area between the archways is an invisible portal that astrally projects anyone who walks through it to a depiction of the ruins in their prime and subsequent destruction which ends and returns them to an empty gazebo. Bonus points if the astral projection fits into your dungeon somehow by revealing clues to traps/puzzles or a hint to the location of hidden treasure (maybe have people rushing to hide a conspicuous box/chest and allow the party to find it should they go to the exact location in the present time).

...any chance that if you bring enough dragon priest masks into the projection, you get a final, ultimate mask?

[Droodicus]

Teleportation circle that ports the characters above the cloud layer, they expect to fall to their deaths but only fall a few feet as the cloud layer is solid.
This could be where the lost civilisation has gone, either still flourishing in secret or degenerated down Into vicious degenerates who rely on the Teleportation to send them food

[HappyDaze]

Depending on if you don't mind a little silliness, try one of these:

An elevator down to a deeper level of the dungeon.
A restroom/lavatory for the denizens of the dungeon.
A grouping of magical vending machines (mostly empty).

[loki_ragnarock]

Your players are in a lost ancient city, overgrown to the extend that the still standing ruins are nearly hidden. But this one stands out.
Looks like a stone gazebo. what will the player find if they walk up the steps?

This is not a dungeon, the very area they are in is the dungeon. this is just an encounter, another room.
Be creative. What will your players find?

https://i.postimg.cc/Rh0cTh6b/ruins.jpg

The architecture is not dissimilar to the family shrines that one of the party members uses in their ancestor worship. Perhaps this is what attracts their initial interest, but further investigation reveals that the similarities don't end there. Inside is the same elaborate family tree they've found in their own shrine, a painted picture in a leaf frame depicting every member branching off for a hundred generations.

Except for one key difference. This family shrine has an entirely new branch that extends from the progenitor. And what it reveals is...

[Falcon X]

Shrine to a deity that kept whatever was in this dungeon at bay. Indeed, this shrine contained the force that countered whatever evil was in this dungeon.

What it might have been protecting against?
- A fiend that is prowling around the dungeon right now.
- A soul gem that acted as prison to a great fiend.
- Countered a lich's phylactery so it couldn't regenerate.
- A portal to somewhere that was causing problems for the world (cue the Upside Down)
- This whole dungeon is a planar bubble to some plane/demiplane, and evil magic can be performed here at ease, and possibly even the world's nature is changed by it.

The statue might be broken to show that whatever it was either escaped, or the power went on unchecked. You might be able to either Mend the statue, or take something inside it as an abjuration.
Alternately, the players could witness the breaking of it, or even cause it themselves.

[elyktsorb]

Several pumpkins

[Spiritchaser]

A gate to another ruin like this/feywild/murder dimension as level and or campaign appropriate.

A poem, written in <insert campaign appropriate language> which contains a historical reference or name relevant to a riddle or puzzle in a future adventure

A magical pedestal, partly damaged but still functional(ish?), with a small round indentation in the centre. Buried under some rubble in the same room is a cabinet filled with crystals about the size of a fist, clearly designed to fit the recess in the pedestal. Most are smashed, some few are not. The crystals are memories, frozen in time. Moving Images and sounds of events which once occurred and which were considered important enough to preserve. They can be played back by inserting them into the recess in the pedestal. If your players are patient Have at least two crystals show one event, from two points of view, and insert differences or errors showing the shadings of different observers. This can be interesting and fun to play with, but it’s a warning to the players that all that is recorded is only as true to life as the memory was. That critical hint or clue in one of the crystals has to be interpreted in the context of whoever the observer was.

[MrStabby]

A dire camel.

[LordCdrMilitant]

Your players are in a lost ancient city, overgrown to the extend that the still standing ruins are nearly hidden. But this one stands out.
Looks like a stone gazebo. what will the player find if they walk up the steps?

This is not a dungeon, the very area they are in is the dungeon. this is just an encounter, another room.
Be creative. What will your players find?

https://i.postimg.cc/Rh0cTh6b/ruins.jpg

Several enemy field officers, of the type they've been fighting their whole way through the ruins so far, and several sentries. The officers have a map of the compound with flag pins on it, and the sentries are preparing to repel the party. One of the officers is trying to get in contact with his superiors in a panic. This is a forward command post, currently coordinating the efforts to pin down and destroy the party that penetrated their perimeter.

[Imbalance]

The remains of a heavy curtain drift from rings hung on rusted rods at the top of each arch. Sconces adorn every other column, the oil long burned away from ornate lanterns. The floor is foot-worn stone. The ceiling bears faded images of people, seemingly engaged in conversation. A simple bench is present, looking like it may have had reclining wooden members and a decayed cushion of some kind, crumbling now. From the roof supports a singular vertical post descends to a point several feet from the floor, and on it securely hangs a length of magically strengthened cord that ends in a looping coil that is permanently attached to a solitary stone of sending.

[Aussiehams]

The whole Gazebo is a giant Mimic.

[Sam113097]

A simple "I agree" would have sufficed as that is exactly what I suggested; just worded differently—the challenge was to be creative.

I apologize. Did not see your previous post.

[Expired]

I apologize. Did not see your previous post.
My apologies—I assumed you did. Great minds think alike, huh?