Dungeon Idea - The Keep of Silence

[Darwin]

So I've decided to sit down and design an adventure for future personal use. The idea is to include a keep with a strong curse of silence laid upon it, denying the PC's the usual way of communication. The idea sparked from a session where the party became deafened for a few minutes, it drew out a lot of creativity from some of my otherwise rather dullish players.

Thoughts:
- Teamwork puzzles.
- Force the players to communicate, eventually present them with examples.
- The Voiceless, a cult of Vecna dedicated to absolute secrecy has taken residence in the cursed keep, they communicate through a complicated sign language.
- Darkness traps, no voice, no light, no metagaming? Yeah I'd like to see how my group would handle this.
- Spellcasters are going to be nerfed, help them out somehow so they won't be completely useless. (single charge items that allowed a single spell to be cast silently?).
- Black Tentacles Trap, for my own reference.
- How does sonic spells and effects work under silence?
- Should there be rooms untouched by the curse, allow the players to rest out where they can plan out their next moves?
- What ECL should this adventure be at? I'm thinking 4-6'ish


Your thoughts, ideas and critique is more than welcome.

[Flickerdart]

Mindbender 1 dip: Telepathy 100ft.
Psionics are good at this, and don't need incantations anyways. A Telepath would be incredibly deadly here, as would Rogues with Darkvision.
Rary's Telepathic Bond.
Silent Image to etch letters into the air.
Does Perform (dance) work if they can't be seen? Bards are gonna feel this one...

[Lord Loss]

Give them the bonus feat that allows silent spellcasting. While theyre in the crypt. It's removed when they leave. This was imposed as part of the curse so casters under Vecna's command could cast spells.

[Flickerdart]

Actually, it should only be bestowed on Vecna's worshippers. Maybe Shar's as well, this seems like her kind of thing. You could also auto-Silence spells cast from the Shadow Weave.

[Pika...]

So I've decided to sit down and design an adventure for future personal use. The idea is to include a keep with a strong curse of silence laid upon it, denying the PC's the usual way of communication. The idea sparked from a session where the party became deafened for a few minutes, it drew out a lot of creativity from some of my otherwise rather dullish players.

That sir, is an amazing idea! I simply love it.

Please, if you could be so generous, might you possibly post your adventure/notes once complete? I would have a ball DMing something like this.

[Jack_Simth]

For some odd reason, I tend to make most of my characters learn Drow Sign at some point. Now I've got a pretty good idea why.

Out of battle, though, you can pretty much just always use the hilt of a dagger or some such to write in the sand (unless the Barbarian didn't burn the two skill points on literacy).

[Darwin]

First of all thanks for the great suggestions so far, keep em coming!

Seconds, once finished I'll make the module available for download if there's still interest by then, as said in the OP I plan on making it span over 2-3 levels, preferably level 4-6, or 7.

[Pika...]

- Darkness traps, no voice, no light, no metagaming? Yeah I'd like to see how my group would handle this.

You could have some serious fun with this.

Some ideas I would try during this event:
Remove all miniatures from the table (if you use them).
If you play at your home, surprise them by turning off the lights for the session. Have all dice rolling done on a laptop with the brightness setting turned down.
Have all the players set facing away from each other, not able to look at each other, and make it clear that they can only communicate with the DM (aka you).

First of all thanks for the great suggestions so far, keep em coming!

Seconds, once finished I'll make the module available for download if there's still interest by then, as said in the OP I plan on making it span over 2-3 levels, preferably level 4-6, or 7.

Well, at least I would still be interested.

[Dingle]

Metamagic rods of silent spell would be very useful and the last group of adventurers would have brought some. 3 spells per day would be interesting for the spellcasters. It would be bad for sorcerors with thier limited spells known and removing thier spells per day advantage over wizards unless they have silent spell.