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!