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DiscipleofBob
2008-02-25, 11:39 PM
Basically, due to the decisions the party has made (rather than railroad the plot, I just gave them an objective and let them decide which leads to follow), the party is headed towards the area around Mordain's Hall. For those who don't know Eberron (or just not know Mordain), he's a level 18 elf transmuter. I was figuring the party would go through 1 maybe 2 encounters with weird aberration types patrolling the area around before they get captured and have to find their way out, possibly overhearing Mordain's plan in the process. Mordain keeps the party as "guests" until he can talk to each one in one-on-one sessions to determine if he can recruit any of them into his schemes. Then he'll be discussing his plot with his lieutenants leaving the PC's with ample time to try and escape.

There will currently be 4 or 5 players, depending on whether or not the necromancer decides to switch sides, ranging from levels 6-7. The party includes a human rogue, changeling fighter, human cleric, human cleric/wizard specializing in necromancy, and a warforged warlock. They definitely won't be fighting Mordain or his lieutenants, as they'll be way out of his league, just exploring Mordain's hall and trying to get out/learning more about the evil plot he has going/probably looting whatever they can in the process.

Here's what I have thought up so far: Mordain's Hall will consist of 4 above-ground floors and a massive basement (where Mordain conducts the majority of his more twisted experiments.) Mordain recently freed his prisoners to satisfy the wishes of one of his lieutenants, a cleric of the Traveler, and considers the PC's to be "guests" rather than prisoners, so aside from a few guards and experiments, the hall will remain eerily abandoned. To get between the floors there are 4 winding staircases at the corners of the building, but they go to random floors and are constantly shifting. Outside the hall they'll either be fighting a flesh golem toned down in its abilities so they stand a chance or a few athachs (which they've fought before), until they actually get captured. Inside, they'll be "guests" inside a rather well-furnished bedroom with no actual door, entrance, or exit. Mordain is a transmuter and has no need for such "mundane means" of going through rooms. How he actually does get through the rooms is something I need to figure out, and hopefully something the PC's can exploit to escape. Except for a few of the main rooms, most of the rooms the PC's can enter contain one of Mordain's experiments, usually a rather "unique" take on a transmutation spell.

Here's how it works: each floor contains rooms with transmutation spells of varying levels used in a strange way, such as Animate Rope to create a large, weird snake-like rope construct, or weird lycanthrope-looking creatures (the victims of experimental Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Bear's Endurance, etc.) And while these rooms would containt combat encounters, there would also be a great deal of puzzle-solving. The higher the party goes the higher level spell they face and thus more danger. The first floor will contain 1-2 level spells, the second floor 3-4, the third floor 5-6, and the fourth floor 7-9. Also, there will be aberrations of all types acting as guards around the floors.

So I just need help coming up with ideas, homebrewed monsters, puzzles, etc. The party won't need to go through every room, and by the time if they revisit the place later, Mordain will have switched everything around being the cunningly insane wizard he is.

Any suggestions?

Citizen Joe
2008-02-25, 11:47 PM
Watch the movie Cube. All the rooms look the same (maybe different color) but they constantly move and may or may not contain a trap or monster (animated object).

crimson77
2008-02-26, 12:00 AM
Watch the movie Cube. All the rooms look the same (maybe different color) but they constantly move and may or may not contain a trap or monster (animated object).

This is a cool idea but may i change it a little. Maybe having a 27 rooms set up in a 3x3 square. In the center is your evil villain. The PCs have to figure out the correct pattern of monsters/traps/puzzles to get to the center. If they choose the wrong room, they end up in a room with not exits and a monster with all the doors closing trapping them to fight. After each room they complete the box shifts and new monsters are brought into the cube. You might want the correct sequence to be i they must go right 4 times but it could take a while for them to figure it out. You could leave clues in each room, like a room with for statues that have no left hands. When they come to some rooms that are familiar have the same monster/trap waiting for them.

F.L.
2008-02-26, 06:42 AM
This is a cool idea but may i change it a little. Maybe having a 27 rooms set up in a 3x3 square. In the center is your evil villain. The PCs have to figure out the correct pattern of monsters/traps/puzzles to get to the center. If they choose the wrong room, they end up in a room with not exits and a monster with all the doors closing trapping them to fight. After each room they complete the box shifts and new monsters are brought into the cube. You might want the correct sequence to be i they must go right 4 times but it could take a while for them to figure it out. You could leave clues in each room, like a room with for statues that have no left hands. When they come to some rooms that are familiar have the same monster/trap waiting for them.

For 27 rooms wouldn't that be 3 vertical levels of 3x3 squares stacked on each other, with the villain in the center of floor 2?

Kol Korran
2008-02-26, 09:30 AM
Hmmmm, too bad you don't detail a bit more about the situation, or Mordain's role in it, it might have inspired more ideas (or at least more focused ones). anyway, a few ideas, from the top of my head (might think of more later):

what's the role of the Traveler's cleric there? he might leave the group some means of "escape" (beware the gifts of the traveler), or some hints in some of the rooms (the same warning applis). Is Mordain aware of the group's escape? is he watching? is this some sort of test for the cleric perhaps? to check his inginuity?

Mordain is also famous as a renegade elf, and for his interest in Daelkyr magic and creations. as such, he and his creations should be fairly disturbing/ horrific (apologizes for those who don't know what i'm talking about). you can add more flare, and inerest in oone of the following ways:

1) Mordain (or the cleric) offers the party that they can escape, if one (or two/ three/ all) wil lagree to have an experimental symbiont attached to them. this symbiont may give them the means to escape ("shape stone" power once per day?)
later, when the part escape, they see the symbiont has grwon, and cannot be removed without soem serious harm (the removel migth require aanother quest).

2) alternetavly, Mordain (or the cleric), may implant a subdemral/ internal symbiont to one or more of the characters. the characters find a second awareness (as low intelligent that it may be), within their mind, who offers them a means of escape (Mordain/ the cleric turtured this symbiont, while "accidently" telling it of a way out, supplying it with a motivatio nto escape). the mai ndifference from the first idea is that tha party are in the dark as to the source of this "helpful" entity.

as to these first two ideas, they work best with a rolepaly focused player. the symbiont could even develop to an NPC, if you all play it right, which might be interesting ("what does a symbiont want anyway? if you cut it, does it not bleed?"). the warforge might add interest to this- either Mordain wants to experiment on it's physioligy, or maybe he cannot experiment on his physioligy, or perhaps the symbiont reacts in... unexpected ways when joined with the warforged...

3) i don't have much for the renegade elf angle, except the following:

- maybe in one room/ some of the rooms they find notes/ tablets/ other research data, of Mordain who researched into the whole process of creating undying, him being the curious guy he is (perhaps he wanted to incorporate the undying situation to one of his creations? to himself? to symbionts). in one of the rooms the party then may find a half functional labaratory. they might use the notes and their own knowledge skills to crate something of use to them (soem ideas- simple potions/ curing aid, a permenant small HP bonus, a +1 increase to CON or WIS, offseting the penalty by the symbiont).

- at one of the rooms they migth find the rmeains of experimenting with the undying (the remants of a delegation that displeased Mordain centuries ago). some ideas- flesh golem, made from undying flesh (fast healing?), a hybrid monster, of adolgaunt and an undying soldier, back to back (speaking with two voices, cannot be flanked, the undying also has suckers on him, the dolgaunt laso had dr 5/ targath, an udying soldeir with a permenant Living Alter self spell bound to him (the shining form changes shapes, perhaps to mimic the party, perhaps at random, perhaps other it has seen?), or a gelatinous cube, with the remains of the elven armor inside it, and the ghostly images of the undying upon it's surface, moaning and askign for vengence/ help (fast healing? targath DR?)

other random ideas, that migth be fun:

4) the room of many eyes (or "the mess hall"), a fairly large room, with may breaks and creveces and holes in the walls. it might have some tables with what seesm like throughly eaten meals on them... as the party goes inside more, suddenly the walls starts to ooze flesh, with eyes, mouths, and so, gibbering constantly. the basic idea is a a room withe several gibbering mouthers, or just one realy big one. the Mouthers migth be full (though a mouth or two might stil ltry to take a bite. peckish little darlings), and converse (an alteration by Mordain), or not. the main idea here is horror- a room who's walls and ceilings ooze flesh and eyes. (i don't know exactly what to do with this idea, maybe others could help...)

oh, one note about this: you could pepper different references as to "the watcher", before the yreach this place. i've tried somethign similar once, and most players imemdiatly reached the conclusion- Beholder ahead. might be nice to see them wrong. also you could add these kinds of holes in all kind of rooms, and have "the watcher" (Mordain's cleaning maid), come and check in on them. perhaps they even have to feed him every so much time, or else it itself decides to take matters into it's own? might be a very effective time pressure aspect ("feed me! feed me seymore!") the party might even manipulate him to retreive items/ gain access to places they can't reach, or learn more about what's appening to them/ Mordain and his lackeys... (how do you bluff or negotiate with a fleshy mass of eyes and teeth?)

5) a room/ series of rooms in which a random Polymorph affect is constantly active (either living spell or just a zone). the characters change shape either once, every several times/ minutes, or when they so some actions/ go over pressure plates/ and so on. the focus behind this idea is to challange the players with new forms( casting a spell as a displacer beast), roleplay, (how charismatic will the warforge be as a black pudding?) nad perhaps overcoming specific obstacles. (only somehing with wings could fly over there...). i'd suggest not to involve a specific puzzle into this, sincem ost players wil find a way to overcome it. if you do go this way, prepare osme very basic stat cards for your players in advance though...

6) flest binding spiders/ stirges (could work with both, if you alter this enough): at one room the part meets a host of spiders/ stirges. who fal lupon them. but after biting them, they don't inject poison or drink blood, but instead immediatly fly to another character! when doing so, a strange cordy, fleshy line stretches. the creatures create lines of flesh that bind tha characters. these impede movement (there is only as far as theycan go), and cause damage if broken. the creatures motives may not be clear, but the consequence is- a tabgle of flesh between the characters, unless they work fast to break it, and kilsl the buggers.

7) Dolgrims/ dolgaunts with a joint mind: in some rooms/ series of rooms, one of Mordain's succeses comes appearent- the party meet several dolgrims/ dolgaunts, who all work in unison, coordinating their actions impecablly. there is no central mind that will break this, or any other way. one creature, with many minds and bodies. how this affect them, you decide- ither they are emotionless and robotic in behavior ("Borg like"), or perhaps trying to invent their own little civilization/ working o some project, or whatever... they can prove valuable, enemies, and more.. your decision. should feel eerie, especially if they met dolgrims/ dolgaunts before...

8) the abbearant Beholder/ Gaunt: at one place there is this old miserable creature. he may be an advisor to Mordain, an experiment, a refugee, or an underling. this creature might miss some of his eyestlaks, may have some with different affect ( your imagination, with concurrence with Mordain's interests, or the Daelkyr). or might have more appendages added to him- an undead ribcage and arms underneaht him? a headless troll's body, with a permenant control monster cast on it? (or something o nthose lines...)

those are all the ideas i have now, good luck to you, let us know how it went.

DiscipleofBob
2008-02-26, 04:36 PM
Hmmmm, too bad you don't detail a bit more about the situation, or Mordain's role in it, it might have inspired more ideas (or at least more focused ones). anyway, a few ideas, from the top of my head (might think of more later):

what's the role of the Traveler's cleric there? he might leave the group some means of "escape" (beware the gifts of the traveler), or some hints in some of the rooms (the same warning applis). Is Mordain aware of the group's escape? is he watching? is this some sort of test for the cleric perhaps? to check his inginuity?

The Traveler cleric is a CG changeling who has decided to assist Mordain in his plan since they have similar goals under the condition that Mordain free all his prisoners and not take any more (based on the Complete Champion Travel domain affiliation that forbids its followers from taking prisoners or allowing allies to take prisoners.)

Mordain's plan is (and I trust those who are playing in this game to not look) as follows...
A long time ago, one particular Daelkyr whose objectives and madness eclipsed even those of its brethren, caused so much trouble that the gods themselves had to seal it in its own personal prison in Khyber. The Sovereign Host tried too hard to remain impartial, so it ended up being the Dark Six who actually sent representatives to seal this particular Daelkyr. Now, Mordain, after establishing some limited contact with the imprisoned Daelkyr, is promised the arcane powers of the Daelkyr if Mordain will free it. The ritual involves going to six hidden shrines of the Dark Six, finding six individuals who most embody the Dark Six in some way, and infusing them with a portion of the dark gods' power, thus allowing the six individuals to open the prison. The changeling has agreed to help because he was promised that the Daelkyr will destroy the Dragonmarked Houses, which this particular changeling loathes more than anything.



Mordain is also famous as a renegade elf, and for his interest in Daelkyr magic and creations. as such, he and his creations should be fairly disturbing/ horrific (apologizes for those who don't know what i'm talking about). you can add more flare, and inerest in oone of the following ways:

1) Mordain (or the cleric) offers the party that they can escape, if one (or two/ three/ all) wil lagree to have an experimental symbiont attached to them. this symbiont may give them the means to escape ("shape stone" power once per day?)
later, when the part escape, they see the symbiont has grwon, and cannot be removed without soem serious harm (the removel migth require aanother quest).

2) alternetavly, Mordain (or the cleric), may implant a subdemral/ internal symbiont to one or more of the characters. the characters find a second awareness (as low intelligent that it may be), within their mind, who offers them a means of escape (Mordain/ the cleric turtured this symbiont, while "accidently" telling it of a way out, supplying it with a motivatio nto escape). the mai ndifference from the first idea is that tha party are in the dark as to the source of this "helpful" entity.

as to these first two ideas, they work best with a rolepaly focused player. the symbiont could even develop to an NPC, if you all play it right, which might be interesting ("what does a symbiont want anyway? if you cut it, does it not bleed?"). the warforge might add interest to this- either Mordain wants to experiment on it's physioligy, or maybe he cannot experiment on his physioligy, or perhaps the symbiont reacts in... unexpected ways when joined with the warforged...

These are all really good ideas. My only concern is that Mordain might not have time to operate or get such a symbiont for any of the party before they escape. Definitely sounds like an experiment he'd try though. At this point, I'm also kind of hoping they'll escape under Mordain's nose.



3) i don't have much for the renegade elf angle, except the following:

- maybe in one room/ some of the rooms they find notes/ tablets/ other research data, of Mordain who researched into the whole process of creating undying, him being the curious guy he is (perhaps he wanted to incorporate the undying situation to one of his creations? to himself? to symbionts). in one of the rooms the party then may find a half functional labaratory. they might use the notes and their own knowledge skills to crate something of use to them (soem ideas- simple potions/ curing aid, a permenant small HP bonus, a +1 increase to CON or WIS, offseting the penalty by the symbiont).

- at one of the rooms they migth find the rmeains of experimenting with the undying (the remants of a delegation that displeased Mordain centuries ago). some ideas- flesh golem, made from undying flesh (fast healing?), a hybrid monster, of adolgaunt and an undying soldier, back to back (speaking with two voices, cannot be flanked, the undying also has suckers on him, the dolgaunt laso had dr 5/ targath, an udying soldeir with a permenant Living Alter self spell bound to him (the shining form changes shapes, perhaps to mimic the party, perhaps at random, perhaps other it has seen?), or a gelatinous cube, with the remains of the elven armor inside it, and the ghostly images of the undying upon it's surface, moaning and askign for vengence/ help (fast healing? targath DR?)

Hm... I wasn't even thinking about that kind of angle at all. I never figured for Mordain being from or having interest in Aerenal, but those would be very interesting encounters.



other random ideas, that migth be fun:

4) the room of many eyes (or "the mess hall"), a fairly large room, with may breaks and creveces and holes in the walls. it might have some tables with what seesm like throughly eaten meals on them... as the party goes inside more, suddenly the walls starts to ooze flesh, with eyes, mouths, and so, gibbering constantly. the basic idea is a a room withe several gibbering mouthers, or just one realy big one. the Mouthers migth be full (though a mouth or two might stil ltry to take a bite. peckish little darlings), and converse (an alteration by Mordain), or not. the main idea here is horror- a room who's walls and ceilings ooze flesh and eyes. (i don't know exactly what to do with this idea, maybe others could help...)

oh, one note about this: you could pepper different references as to "the watcher", before the yreach this place. i've tried somethign similar once, and most players imemdiatly reached the conclusion- Beholder ahead. might be nice to see them wrong. also you could add these kinds of holes in all kind of rooms, and have "the watcher" (Mordain's cleaning maid), come and check in on them. perhaps they even have to feed him every so much time, or else it itself decides to take matters into it's own? might be a very effective time pressure aspect ("feed me! feed me seymore!") the party might even manipulate him to retreive items/ gain access to places they can't reach, or learn more about what's appening to them/ Mordain and his lackeys... (how do you bluff or negotiate with a fleshy mass of eyes and teeth?)

Absolutely love this idea. Exactly the kind of sick, twisted thing I'm looking for. :smallbiggrin:



5) a room/ series of rooms in which a random Polymorph affect is constantly active (either living spell or just a zone). the characters change shape either once, every several times/ minutes, or when they so some actions/ go over pressure plates/ and so on. the focus behind this idea is to challange the players with new forms( casting a spell as a displacer beast), roleplay, (how charismatic will the warforge be as a black pudding?) nad perhaps overcoming specific obstacles. (only somehing with wings could fly over there...). i'd suggest not to involve a specific puzzle into this, sincem ost players wil find a way to overcome it. if you do go this way, prepare osme very basic stat cards for your players in advance though...


This was one of the ideas I was toying around in my head, though I wasn't sure how to implement it. Granted, the group is very good at roleplaying, but what would the point/challenge be? Trying to get un-polymorphed? Manipulating the polymorphs to get through the room? What?



6) flest binding spiders/ stirges (could work with both, if you alter this enough): at one room the part meets a host of spiders/ stirges. who fal lupon them. but after biting them, they don't inject poison or drink blood, but instead immediatly fly to another character! when doing so, a strange cordy, fleshy line stretches. the creatures create lines of flesh that bind tha characters. these impede movement (there is only as far as theycan go), and cause damage if broken. the creatures motives may not be clear, but the consequence is- a tabgle of flesh between the characters, unless they work fast to break it, and kilsl the buggers.

Wow, that's absolutely evil. Perfect for the dungeon, I just got to make sure there's a way out of it once the bugs are killed.



7) Dolgrims/ dolgaunts with a joint mind: in some rooms/ series of rooms, one of Mordain's succeses comes appearent- the party meet several dolgrims/ dolgaunts, who all work in unison, coordinating their actions impecablly. there is no central mind that will break this, or any other way. one creature, with many minds and bodies. how this affect them, you decide- ither they are emotionless and robotic in behavior ("Borg like"), or perhaps trying to invent their own little civilization/ working o some project, or whatever... they can prove valuable, enemies, and more.. your decision. should feel eerie, especially if they met dolgrims/ dolgaunts before...

Well, they just fought a few dolgrims and dolgaunts (in fact the necromancer now has two dolgaunt skeletons for the time being.) But what would a joint mind accomplish besides a possible creep factor if the PC's even notice? How would that be different from a normal encounter?



8) the abbearant Beholder/ Gaunt: at one place there is this old miserable creature. he may be an advisor to Mordain, an experiment, a refugee, or an underling. this creature might miss some of his eyestlaks, may have some with different affect ( your imagination, with concurrence with Mordain's interests, or the Daelkyr). or might have more appendages added to him- an undead ribcage and arms underneaht him? a headless troll's body, with a permenant control monster cast on it? (or something o nthose lines...)

This is another good idea, but my only concern is that a Beholder seems to high of a CR. I could just use a Gaunt or tweak the stats around a bit, from what I understand, I'd have to lower a hell of a lot in order for a Beholder to be even a reasonable challenge, even if it was all weirded out and stuff.

Prometheus
2008-02-26, 08:07 PM
Ideas:
1) Split the characters up. This always disorients them, and makes sure that they have to go through enough of the dungeon to find each other, even if they come across the "boss room" early. One downside is you have to communicate with them each separately (pen & paper), or hope they are good enough roleplayers not to let what they overhear affect them. Also, they may have to run from a number of monsters while they are trying to find the rest if you hope to make the monsters challenging to the party when they are together
2) Unique Mazes: 2D mazes are boring, do a 3D one. Draw each level of a 2D square maze (it may help to label the x-axis and y-axis with number and letters, so you can correlate a certain spot on one level to another). Obviously, their will either have to be stairs, something to climb, no gravity, or underwater (time limit!) for this to work. If really want to confuse the players, make it a 4D maze, by having levels in one of the dimensions layed out on way, and levels of the other dimension layers out another way (so if you had a 20x20 maze that was 4 units tall and 4 units in the other dimension, you'd have 16 20x20 maps that they players would travel through). IF dimensions scare you as much as it does your players, consider making a teleporter/door maze, where each room has many exits and a few identifying markers, and doors don't always lead where they came, and players have to figure out their way through trial an error or figuring out the pattern.
3) Half-Golem Template: Always a good idea.
4) Party Experimentation: If the players have anything that is racially unique, than have a room that makes it clear that some part of the player has been extracted for use in genetic experiments (example, a half-dragon would stumble upon a room full of failed and dead human-dragon hybrids).
5) Energy Experiment: A simple door that can only be opened by blasting it with energy. Behind it is a creature immune to whatever energy was used
6) The Taunter: A creature that is immune to magic and unbelievably dexterous. It doesn't attack, it only evades the characters attacks, all while holding the puzzle piece needed to proceed. It could look like anything you want, I imagine a humanoid covered in patchwork cloth that moves unhuman grace even while impossibly offbalance.
7) The Mirror Images: Silhouette of the characters attacks by simultaneously using the same actions as they use against it. The characters therefore only have 50-50 odds unless they can find a way to escape it. Variant: The shadow-doubles have the same stats, but use different tactics and have to be outsmarted Variant: The only way to defeat the silhouette is to offer peace, that is, to shake hands with it, hug it, etc. Following such an act of peace, it shows them the way past and/or gives them something useful
8) The insane brute: An incredibly large and mishapen creature (some type of giant perhaps) which is also completely insane. He mutters things aloud to the players and comes to irrational and barely related conclusions when talked to the players. It will probably attack them a couple of times before they manage to convince it, using irrational logic, to help them out. ("Can you help us get on that ledge?" "'Mad Mutant' says the ledger! 'Thwrak' says the Sledger!" *mutant thrashes about breaking things, but does not harm the players as long as keep their distance* "Are you being kept here?" "Har Har! At least I kept my ears!" *laughs and grins wildly* "Um...I guess we'll catch you on the way back..." "Scratch scratch back!" *mutant leans against the wall bridging himself to the ledge, players are free to climb up him and any pricks that they may in him cause him to sigh in relief* "Right we'll take the stairs" "Stairs! I'm stairs!" *mutant arranges himself like stairs, providing platforms for the players to use* "Lets just a lie low for a while" "Lie!? Why would you lie? I hate liers!" *proceeds to attack the players, even more viciously after the next thing they say ("That's a lie!"), but after the next thing (round) he forgets what he was doing and reacts to what they say).

Kol Korran
2008-02-27, 07:07 AM
first of all, thanks for the response DoB. the info about Mordain and the traveler's Cleric sprung a few intresting ideas. i'll try to relay them, as well as respond to your questions/ rmemarks to my previous post. however, i'm fairly new to the forums, and i'm not quite sure how the "quote" function works, so if this post is messed up, i'll try another. ok, here goes:

Mordain/ Cleric of traveler affiliation: their alliance is tense one it seems. i suggest that the cleric should not be privy to the full extent of Mordain's plans- even a mildly good (and most neutral characters) would oppose the slightest attempts at realising a Daelkyr. Mordain might have promised to help the cleric, giving examples of his powers and resources. that might convince the cleric to work with him, for awhile... but as every "half worht his bread" cleric of the traveler, he has a few more schemes and contingency plans up his sleeves, and he is also spying on Mordain. later, when the real threat becomes apperant, he might aid the PC's (this might work well with the symbiont idea i'll detail shortly)

the dark six and the characters: Mordain's main need of the Traveler's cleric (and perhaps other religious advisors?) is with devine knowledge, and expertise.he neds them to find the hidden temples, and perhaps locate candidates for "embodiment of the dark god's power". but what if the PC's themselves show some early signs of fitting the role? anyone especially attracted to the field of death and undead? (the necromancer), anyone with a ragin temper? or a penchant for betrayel and cruelty?
perhaps Mordain finds one or two of the party members to have a "poetential" (with or against the advice from his relligious advisors). and this is why he talked with them, (and perhaps experimented upon them), in order to try and push them along... which brings me to-

the symbionts:

These are all really good ideas. My only concern is that Mordain might not have time to operate or get such a symbiont for any of the party before they escape. Definitely sounds like an experiment he'd try though. At this point, I'm also kind of hoping they'll escape under Mordain's nose.

when the characters are captured, they are heavily dosed, unconcious until Mordain decides to revive them. he uses this time to implant the internal symbionts (some sort of gland i think, but might be more personalised depending on the deity, read on) . as to the nature of the symbionts: they are far from normal. Mordain concluded that few people can become suitable vessles to the gods power in this day and age- few if any people display the commitment and raw "evilness" (for a lack of a better word, that is surely out there.. bit bogged out on my vocabulary now). so, he decided to find "applicants" that were on some of the way there, and "help them" along- these unique symbionts are crafted with the help of the devine clerics of the six, and each has one main purpose- to foster and increase the personality, urges, intincts, mentality an power of their respected deity, in their host (symbiont of fury wil lgradully make it's host angrier and more uncontrolled, the devourer woulf feast, and plunder, and destroy).
Mordain wishes to see thesubjects evolve in his dungeon, but there is someone that thinks different- the cleric of the traveler. he became suspicious at the creating of the symbionts (the traveler's cleric don't hold any allegiance to the other deities of the dark six after all), and he installed some small flaw/ backdoor ritual/magic/ condition, that may subvert/ halt/ nullify the Symbiont's affect ("beware the deals you make with the traveler"). when he understands that the symbionts were transplanted in the Characters, he becomes worried that Mordain might find the flaw he engineered, and so secretly, covertly, arranges the party's chance of escape. (perhaps through manipulating "watcher"? or some other unknowing tool?) this way you can get the ymbionts, and avoid Mordain knowing about it. it also gives you a few nice hooks/ developments later on:

- Mordain sends trackers/ hunters after them. might be his own, or those of his fellows. ooorrr, he might decide to watch them from then on...
- the Character's symbionts grwo in power, anf infulence. this might appear as conflicting personality struggles (you might use some version of the possesion rules, or something else), physical changes (eyes, hair, scars, smell, and more... befitting the genreal concept of the deity, or peraps even his believeddraconic heritage?), and not to forget- powers. (this could resemble the development of Abberent marks, as in the "dragonmarked" book, though i'd suggest something more "divinely inspired", and if possible unique). these powers however, means the character falls more and more into darkness, curruption Vs. power (Ring from lord of the rings, dark side of the force, and so on) i'd suggest this will be for up to two characters- one power hungry (AKA the darth vader type.. your necromancer?), and one who loves to play the anguished and troubled, yet still righteous guy (luke skywalker type). yes, i know these are somewhat cliches, but they migth work well...
- the symbionts (and the transformation the characters go through, not to mention possible acts reflecting their symbiont's nature), may cause other adverseries to haunt them/ follow them, or at least explore about them. a few that comes to mind: soverign host and silver flame strike forces, various cults of the dragon, the gate keepers and wardens of the wood (or ashbound), Rakshasa and the lords of dust, the dragonmarked houses (this could be interesting if you add the cleric as a mordain agent on their tale at this point, i'll get to that a bit later), and of course- evryone whom their powers hurt directly. you could even send an impure prince abberation hunter after them (magic of eberron)- he might give them a bit of a hint to their condition).
- at some later poiint i nthe campaign ,when the stake are starting to become appearant, the clerci of the traveler locates the characters/ arrannges to meet them, and reveales the hidden flaw that enables to override the symbiont's mastery. this should be some realy dangerous, and strange quest, that should prompt the characters to question if the intentions are real ("be ware the gifts of the traveler"). this could end with the removal of the symbiont (but no owrries, Mordain found another candidate. he makes contingencies as well), a supprsion of it (it's removal can only happen the priests that helped create it are slain. oh, by the way, they happe nto assit mordain now, in releasing the daelkyr), or soemthing of the sorts. the quest should befit the traveler, as well as the ambigueous results...

and on the subject of the cleric: the more it think of him/ her, the more interesting s/he becomes- caught between different agendas and desires (work for general good, for general chaos, follow the traveler's teachings, destroy the dragonmarked houeses/specific house, help mordain at first, fear mordain next, oppose mordain near the end but continue to spy on him, so to falter his plans when needed). this character could seriously help the characters at times, and seriously hurt them at others, but nearly always- in a non direct manner (though it must be obvious to the characters that SOMEONE arranged this to happen...) at certain points the characters should meet him/her in various disguises, and they should become mroe and more aware s/he pulls some of the major strings. but (and this is an importent but)- they should never realy understand whether to trust him/ her or not... (by the way, an idea that just sprang to mind. since a character with a symbiont needs to be brought to one of the temples, maybe the cleric can manipulate the characrters there under soem false pretense. s/hes doesn't want to, but Mordain is becoming suspicious, and requires this asa test of loyalty or something...)
this could trun to be a very interesting character, with her main focus on subterfuge, patince, manpulation, and escape. hhhmmmmm, just one more idea to spice it up- near the end of his plans, Mordain still can't find a perfect embodiment of the traveler, but he finally finds the cleric's betrayel out. he's not angry, but amused, mostly because he found a perfect subject at last... the cleric somehow manages to send a (not utterly trustworthy) message to the characters, before s/he is bound andtaken to the hidden temple. will the characters save this shady character?

ok, now finally to the rooms ideas:

- the Ploymorph things: i though about it as mostly flavour, not the main challange (the polymorph fades after several hours/ when the leave a zone). however a few interesting shapes:
some sort of ooze ("life through the slime's eyes... um, maybe not eyes)
otyugh
were-something in animal form
centaur
ettercap
dridder
- still on the ploymorph, something a bit odd ball, that can surely be used to solve some sort of quest. what if the entire party (5 members, right?) wre turned into a five headed hydra?they must deal with having the same feet for movement, coordinate their attacks (theyr wern't born this way). you could even fashion each head to fit the character's style.
- the joined Dolgrim/ Dolgaunt: this idea may prove more worthwhile in the long run, than just for this adventure. how about this concept:
Mordain have created this as part of the militery force he might need, as a security against the Daelkyr, and his mind flayers (the joint mind make them imprevious to many psychic attacks- like trying to attack a mind flayer's community central brain pool). plus- their simple brains' are distaistful lto the mindflayers. when the characters meet them in this adventure, they are still very few (several dozens, perhaps a hundred or so), and most of what they do is learn, and improve their skills. they know not yet of the party, but they will early on tell they are workng directly of for Mordain, and have some unquenchable loyalty to him. the encounter with them should provide a bit of knowledge to their nature, but no more (if the party fights some of them, the rest might come soone enough, mumbling amongst themselves, and then hanking the characters for "teaching us how better to defend ourselves, we won't be so easy to defeat next time", and thanking Mordain for "sending this lesson to us" the characters should feel that as a group, they are not be messed with.
but what next? well:
- in most encounters that feature any of Mordain's minions, at least some of these guys should appear, learning, learning... if they die, it doesn't matter, all share the experience.
- when the party tries to inflitrate a camp of Mordain's followers or such, alerting even one of this (and this means he simply sees you, or get stabbed), should alert ALL of them, whether at the camp, or next to Mordain himself. (feel free to adjust this. perhaps there is a limit to this). the idea is that suddenly just barging into a dungeon/ castle/ ruin/ whatever room after room isn't simple anymore. you introduce a whole new level of complexity. sphere of invisibility, mass change self (forgot the proper name), and other forms of deception might be needed, of course, this would probably work but one time, as the joit mind learns from it's mistakes... also, the simple "lets grab an underling and beat the crap out of him till he tells us all we need to know" is out of the question (though the first time might be lovely... the bleeding Dolgrim whispers nonchalantly between his lips "we're coming..."
- when fighting this buggers they get all kind of creepy bonuses from their shared sights, instincts and senses: cannot be flanked, get beter bonuses for copperative meneuvers (+3/+4 for flank, better grapple bonus with many, better "aid another"and such), inititative (either they get a huge bonus, represeting the one who got the best result, or throw some dice, and pick the highest), they can easely change initiative sequences between themslves, as conveinient... also, as the campaign goes by, they slowly becoem better, and they all do (BAB gets better, feats apply to all, some of them taken after imitating the character... how creepy it might be to fight a simple dolgrim, with BAB of +10, combat expertise, improved trip, and weapon specialization? oh wait, there is not only one dolgrim..) the yneedn't get to these level of power, but the concept is uderstood.
- they might develop some arcane/ divne caster (a distroted form of spirit shamen might suit them nicely). these individuals can share their talents only with some, not all... their are "quality levels" of the inividual units.
- and don't forget- Mordain might do some "refitting" to achieve some goals, or just to expermiment.

the great think behind this (to my opinion). is that you create a unique repeating, yet changing challage for the players, one they might fear, might learn to manipulate, but always have to take into account. they know it's basic form and actions, yet it evolves at every new encounter. plus- it studies them! if in the last encounter they dealt with most of the buggers by cones of cold, now the front line witll have some energy protection cast on them, while some archers and spell casters be ready to sqewer the mage as he begins to chant. play it right, and these guys are a vesatile rewarding challange, over and over again.

and lastly, the beholder- as i said, they don't realy need to fight it. and if you're worried that they might, changesome of his rays, or lose some of the stalks. his main point here is to show the connection to the Daelkyr, and perhaps some experiments of Mordain. of course at the end of the conversation he may fight, but in my mind his role was mostly to show the horro of the Daelkyr warpd influence, and in comparison- Mordain.

though this post barely dealt with the dungeon, i hope it helped othewise. now i'd realy like to know how it turned out!

DiscipleofBob
2008-03-04, 02:28 PM
Thanks for the replies. Here's what I have for sure so far.

In case I can't think of a horrible lot of different encounters and puzzles, I've statted out a level 5 dolgrim fighter, barbarian, and monk, as well as a level 6 dolgaunt monk, sorcerer, and cleric (each one randomly chosen from the Dark Six.) so I can just roll up random numbers for different rooms. I also plan to use flesh golems and athachs straight from the MM is it's called for.

Instead of doors, there will be weird pulsating eyes in the walls that open door-sized holes in the walls when any sort of spell is used on them, arcane or divine, of any level. Maybe for some of the vaults, a higher level spell would be necessary. Also, in order to get from one floor to another, they have to learn how to operate these strange winding staircases which constantly shift which floors they actually connect.

The only other monster I've statted out is a homebrewed large Animated Rope Construct to act like a giant snake. Mostly because the rogue in the party is obsessed with animated ropes and immovable rods.

I figure that since the Traveler cleric is romantically involved with the changeling fighter in the party, if they try to go into the main room and fight Mordain (since there's no possible way in Khyber they could take Mordain and three of his lieutenants at that level), he'll either negotiate for their release this one time, or use stuff like Mass Whelm and Overwhelm to dispose of them nonlethally and then release them later.

Prometheus: I think splitting up the party would just be unnecessary and take longer, it's a fun little twist I could throw in a later dungeon, but I don't think it's something I'll worry about.

The half-golem template is something I'd like to try out, but I was told MM2 is 3.0 so some parts of the half-golem need to be converted, like DR and stuff. Any idea where I can get an updated version?

Unfortunately, none of them are particularly racially unique. There's a warforged, a changeling, and the rest are human, with one dragonmark thrown in. I like suggestions 5, 7, and 8 though, and may try to implement them.

Kol Korran: Well, I plan for the cleric to actually be what Mordain requires in regards to the Traveler. The cleric is also willing to help Mordain release the daelkyr because he believes that only something as powerful and chaotic as the daelkyr is able to bring about a successful change through the downfall of the dragonmarked houses. If he eventually starts doubting things, Mordain has a backup plan: namely the symbionts, which he uses as part of the needed ritual so he can also control the lieutenants after they've received godlike powers. The joined Dolgrim/dolgaunt thing is sounding better and better, especially with the whole "bonuses on flanking and aid another thing."

Kol Korran
2008-03-04, 03:55 PM
ok, it seems things are coming along. i personally love to keep things as ambigueous and not at all clear (especially in Eberron), but it's your game. (i always get overly attached to my ideas...)
i'm not very good at designing "room encounters" (i barelly use rooms... prefer larger scale battle fields), but i'll drop a line if somethign comes to mind. some ideas for creatures though (might require a bit of work):
- chokers who have sort of bristles/ feathes on their backs and hands (similar to a Rust monster's tendrils): these chokers have rusting grasp ability (though maybe weaker or not pemenant as that of the rust monster- making armor and weapons brittle for a few rounds). these could be great sidekicks or helper for tougher monsters.
- some sot of weired chimeric creature. either just use the template to create it, or add some other effects- instead of the lion part insert a displacer beast (with it's tendrils, and displacement), instead of the dragon insert a wyvern, and his tail, instead of the goat... well, i never knew what to do with the goat head, but how about a winter wolf or hell hound's head? (and immunity to fire/ cold)
- a carrion crawler with hidden extra long tendrils? who might even grapple?
- an idea that might take quite work, but could realy be cool- tkae the basic concept and stats of the chain devil, and change it to rpresent bones, muscles, tnedons and flesh- some "flesh chain demon" (sorry, didn't think of a better name). he is a result of one of the experiments that never fully made it through. it constantly hurts and bleed, but also continuously heals. mostly there for horror, and a strange challange.
- a big room with Ettercap and spiders. i'm not sure what to do with this idea. the main image i nmy mind is the part traversing this great hall, hearing the chittering high above them (until one drops down)
good luck.