Going on an archeological dig

[shadow_archmagi]

MY PLAYERS GET OUT OF HERE I KNOW IT SHOULD'VE BEEN IN THE TITLE BUT I DIDN'T WANT A REALLY LONG TITLE OK




So, the party is in this cave, they kill this blob, they find this skeleton made of silver.

They sell it to this wizard who says (TEXT MAY NOT MATCH ORIGINAL STATEMENT) "Oh gosh I sure do love ancient things say do you want to do some work for me you adventurers you" and the party is like "You're creepy but you have sacks of money so OK"

So now they're at a stage where all they know is that they are going to be given a new quest soon.

So, the end goal (so as to move my chosen plot-lines along) is that the PCs return and bring the wizard a mindflayer Brain Jar, and preserved within it, raw plot.

In the meantime, they need to have a rockin tombsploring adventure.

Should it be a forgotten crypt lost in the mountains, gaurded by hordes of undead, the party struggling to slaughter their way in foot by foot?

An ancient temple in the desert, where hidden giant beetles lurk in the shifting sand and fiendish puzzles befuddle?

An icy labyrinth deep in the tundra, where all life long perished to the combined strength of the chill wind and the serrated blade trap?

I have no real idea on a location, a theme, a playstyle, or anything. Suggest things, playgrounders! Tell me what monsters and traps are WONDERFUL.

[Assassin89]

Watch Indian Jones for some ideas. Like a giant boulder trap activated by removing a Brain Jar from a pedestal.

[shadow_archmagi]

Watch Indian Jones for some ideas. Like a giant boulder trap activated by removing a Brain Jar from a pedestal.

NOTE: The PCs are all fairly new to the game, so being AWARE that they have a brain jar is not an option. Most of them will have only heard of mind flayers because there's one in the starting area in the D&D MMORPG, and he only appears for like 1 quest before being killed by a dragon and is never mentioned before or after, so they have no real idea what mind flayers are.

So the whole "That jar you found had an evil bug that burrowed into the wizards brain and is making him into a squid-demon" is going to be a surprise. Not sure how to make sure they grab the pot as opposed to anything else though.

[Myshlaevsky]

Does it have to be on the surface of the planet?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Illithids are generally subterranean, so you could have expansive underground caverns, filled with yes, yes, and more yes.

Undead. Handy grunts to throw at PC's in hordes. Immune to a lot of Save or Loose. Make sure the entire area is Desecrated and Unhallowed for maximum effect. Basically, they make the party start wasting resources.

Centipedes and swarms thereof are always fun, and Dex poison to boot. In fact, any kind of Vermin would be really fun. And again, immune to a lot of Save or Loose.

Golems, activated by traps or simply by entering an area, are always fun. Stain Glass Golems, stone golems, flesh golems...

These are your hordes of mooks designed to whittle away at the PC's resources, to exhaust the spell repertoire of the casters, and in general, make them want to go curl up and hide for eight hours.

Now comes the fun part:

Dimensional Lock the whole place. Extend it to extra-dimensional spaces such as Magnificant Mansion and Rope Trick. Now the party doesn't have access to their "Save Crystals". All the sudden, things just got a lot more... interesting.

That is when the Really Creepy Stuff start showing up.

Look up the Psudonatural Template. Throw it on just about anything, and you've got good times. The less non-humanoid, the better.

Kobolds infest a level of the catacombs. See also: Tucker's Kobolds. They've got sorcerers amongst their midst as well.

As you decent, you start facing extra-planar stuff, summoned in and bound to defend the place against intruders. Devils, Demons, Elementals... whatever floats your boat

Don't forget the flora, either. Shambling Mounds, Tendraculous... assume that anything there will want to kill you. Yes, even that.

[Jayngfet]

My idea: THE DUNGEON ITSELF IS ALIVE AND HOSTILE.

Think about it, Illithids are so adept at warping body they made the brain golem. Who's to say there isn't' some brainless monster that occasionally flails at the PC's with an odd tendril or the floor opens up into a fanged maw that eats you alive.

For random mooks I'd say undead corpses made from other adventurers who failed. Stress how they have oddly useful if mostly broken equipment, as if they went in to explore the place themselves. For added effect if a PC falls animate him as a zombie

[Cieyrin]

Any of your proposed tombs could work fine, as Illithids can pop up anywhere, though I wonder why anyone would keep Illithid larvae at the center of a trap-ridden labrinth. It seems more likely to be somewhere where Illithids were, like an abandoned enclave or in the city of one of their sometime allies, like the drow.

For tomb material, you can go classic undead with zombie hordes and mummies, especially mummies with levels. The example mummy cleric in the MM is alright, though there's also a tomb guardian PRC in Libris Mortis that may also be appropriate.

To shake it up a little, you could have another adventuring party looting the same tomb, so it becomes a race to see who gets down to the center first. Either a friendly rivalry or open confrontation can both work out well, giving your players an added incentive to show that they aren't the only mercenaries out there and gives atmosphere to see how other adventuring parties function.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[kopout]

Any of your proposed tombs could work fine, as Illithids can pop up anywhere, though I wonder why anyone would keep Illithid larvae at the center of a trap-ridden labrinth. It seems more likely to be somewhere where Illithids were, like an abandoned enclave or in the city of one of their sometime allies, like the drow.

You could have this and zombies. A mindflayer ruin inhabited by undead mindflayers protecting the last viable larva of their clan.

[TheThan]

So your players are new? Great! Throw the classics at them:

Rolling bolder trap:
Borrowed from Indiana Jones, this trap drops a massive bolder on them and chases them through the dungeon.

Collapsing ceiling trap:
Another one borrowed from Indiana Jones, this one is a good-sized room (say 20x20), when triggered, the doors seal and the ceiling starts to slowly lower, threatening to crush them. For added effect make spikes pop out of the floor and ceiling.

Drowning trap:
The pcs falls onto a chute that promptly deposits them into an empty room. A moment later the room starts to slowly fill with water, sand, poisonous or explosive gas or anything else you can think of that can “drown” the pcs.

The jumping puzzle:
More of a puzzle than a trap, the pcs come to a seemingly impassible precipice. However there are several floating disks, rocky columns protruding form the bottom etc. The pcs must try to leap across the spaces to get to the other side. Please note that fly, dimension door and other such movement spells ruin this one.

[Xenogears]

Centipedes and swarms thereof are always fun, and Dex poison to boot. In fact, any kind of Vermin would be really fun. And again, immune to a lot of Save or Loose.

You mean save or lose. Save or loose just sounds like the name a perverted wizard would give to the charm line of spells at his drunken frat parties...

Dimensional Lock the whole place. Extend it to extra-dimensional spaces such as Magnificant Mansion and Rope Trick. Now the party doesn't have access to their "Save Crystals". All the sudden, things just got a lot more... interesting.

Lets hope none of them keep anything important in a bag of holding...
Besides he said they are new so they probably don't have any of that stuff