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Thread: Backed into a Corner
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2008-10-22, 02:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Location
- I live here.
- Gender
Backed into a Corner
DMing has always been fun and easy for me, everything seems to work out perfectly in my games and major problems quickly resolve themselves. I'm known for throwing out random puzzles or npcs with mysteries attached to them without knowing their purpose myself.
Usually everything works out and I make up an excuse or solution for their presence, but I've backed myself into a corner, literally. The party has come across a square stone bricked room, 20X20 ft room, and the only thing in it is a metal hook on the wall. Its supposed to contain a portal and the adventurers were expecting that...
I had some idea of what to do but the more I think about it and try to come up with a solution the less sense I make of it. I was thinking of having to hang a mirror on the wall and climb through it to get to the portal beyond, but why would they even think of that. I need some clues or something completely different that would be easier for them to figure out.
PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR SOLUTIONS!!
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2008-10-22, 02:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- Everett, WA
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
So the real problem is making sure that the characters have some sort of reason to poke at whatever you hang from the hook, or however the portal works.
I've found that any unusual detail tends to get players poking attention. Something visually suited might be the way to go.
For example, hang a painting from the hook: a lifesized painting of a pair of double doors."Buddy, if I bothered to think like that would I be standing here today with an octopus-god larva growing out of my neck?"
Suh'Zahne, Cultist of Ur
"Since things can't possibly get any worse, Red Mage, we turn to you."
"Prepare to be proved wrong!"
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2008-10-22, 02:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2005
- Location
Re: Backed into a Corner
It's not a hook; it's a switch that looks like a hook. Pull the hook, the portal opens.
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2008-10-22, 02:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Right behind you
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
Have a chain on the end of the hook.
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2008-10-22, 02:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2005
- Location
Re: Backed into a Corner
If they examine the hook carefully, tell them the top looks worn (or, alternatively, is free of dust), as it something had been hanging there for a long time. That should get them thinking about hanging something there.
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2008-10-22, 02:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- London, England
Re: Backed into a Corner
all of the following clues are available in the room;
Close inspection (search check) reveals a faint outline on the wall, something large has normally hung from this hook.
Detect magic reveals strong transmutation and conjuration auras on the hook.
a spot or search check reveals some broken mirror glass on the floor, further investigation shows small pieces of guilt edged frame.
identify cast on the hook will reveal that it will somehow change a specific type of item hung from the hook into some form of portal.Last edited by only1doug; 2008-10-22 at 02:52 PM.
Doug
Currently GMing :
Moonshae Mysteries IC / OOC / Central Map / west rooms map / east rooms map
Moonshae Tales IC / OOC / Map
Map of Area
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2008-10-22, 02:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
Well, making sure to go into a lot of detail about the hook would be a good idea. Perhaps instead of hoping that they will happen to have a mirror, the hook is simply a level that reveals a secret passageway leading to a more obvious portal. This could be hinted at by giving the hook some interesting characteristic, or simply spending more time describing it than anything else in the room. If you give it more attention than anything else, the players will focus on it.
One question, though: why should the players want to go into this random portal? How do they know that it is safe, or that it takes them anywhere they want to go?
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2008-10-22, 02:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
A watch.
There is a pocketwatch hanging from the hook.
If you rewind it, the wall will start to dissasemble as though its construction was being reversed, revealing/creating the portal.Anemoia: Nostalgia for a time you've never known.
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2008-10-22, 02:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
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- I live here.
- Gender
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2008-10-22, 05:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Seattle, WA
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
The wall is actually a lie. Its an illusion that covers a cubby that houses a gelatinous cube. The cube hangs out there waiting for the little bell to ring that signals that its feeding time. The cube then slides around the area, picking up garbage and dust and other debris. The "hook" that the players see is actually the remains of a broken candelabra that is sticking out of the cube through the illusionary wall. If the players grab ahold of the hook, the cube sense this and attempts to slurp up the PC holding it. Do some save or check to let go of it before getting drawn into the cube. The cube then slides out through the wall and proceeds to attempt to eat the party. After slaying the cube, the party explores behind the illusionary wall and finds some undigestable treasure and a portal. Yay!
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2008-10-22, 05:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
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- I live here.
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2008-10-22, 05:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2008-10-22, 05:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
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Re: Backed into a Corner
Hurray! Somebody actually thought one of my ideas was awesome!
I just find the concept of small artifacts that can control time to be... cool.Last edited by Lycan 01; 2008-10-22 at 05:44 PM.
Anemoia: Nostalgia for a time you've never known.
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2008-10-22, 05:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- California
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
Avatar courtesy of Szilard
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2008-10-22, 05:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- Sweden
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
The room is just an elaborate illusion trap. Now nothing is inexcusable, though I doubt you'd be able to get away with it more than once :P
Black text is for sarcasm, also sincerity. You'll just have to read between the lines and infer from context like an animal
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2008-10-22, 06:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: Backed into a Corner
Are you completely -- pardon the pun -- attached to the hook being there?
If not, you can steal an idea from an old adventure game I played on my CoCo a long time ago: the wall contains a painting of a door. If you open it, the portal opens. All other magical cues still apply.
This came up in a game where you were trapped in an insane asylum, and had to get out. An inmate who thought he was Picasso painted these everywhere ... but one of them could be an exit. That was the only time I won that game.
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2008-10-22, 06:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- canada
Re: Backed into a Corner
I like the idea about the double doors painting, especially if your players need such an obvious hint like mine sometimes do. are you player's the type who would actually think of, say, rewinding a watch or carefully investigating things?
town character (retired): gnomas
credits for the awsome avatar go to drKarling!
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2008-10-22, 06:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Location
- I live here.
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Re: Backed into a Corner
Ok this will be my last post on my own thread, but I can't resist telling you about the rest of the dungeon. This is of course in the basement of an evil temple.
This dark cult found the heart of an ancient priestess, the founder of the cult who left behind her grimoire telling future generations how to bring her back if something should ever happen to her. The adventurers find out whats happening and go to stop them, a grim sight awaits them. Cultists in a mad frenzy, dancing in the temple and cutting themselves, bleeding into unholy symbols on the ground.
At the back of the temple is a great golden throne for their priestess and behind it is a strange circle. Its made out of five different precious materials, each representing a different plane, and by combining them and using acts of life and death the ritual is supposed to unlock a portal to a plane of infinite knowledge, an arcane feast if you will, something that humans aren't quite ready for.
After disrupting their doings, and after the priestess disappears they destroy the circle which was opening (stupid barbarian knocked it over onto the golden throne, then broke the circle sending 99% of the throne off into some random spot on this secret plane much to the chagrin of the rogue).
They go down to the basement and find several rooms each with a separate portal. My favorite room is an underground garden, with beautiful (and yes, assassin) vines, and flowing fountains with a shrine at the far end which made all of them enter and become trapped. *that was fun*
Another split into two long hallways full of traps and ending in a drop to a river a mile below. Across the way they see a cavern and through some investigation discover its a mirror showing a cavern on the wall that they're coming out of. I really scared them with a Manworm - look up Manworm, Brak the barbarian - A giant monster with claws a yard wide each. They decided to come back and kill it later.
The last room they'll discover will be a labyrinth with a basilisk or some such snake in it that had a belly lined with gems but is now long dead, leaving the exhausted adventurers, relieved and a little richer (a little compensation for the lost throne). What they don't know is the evil priestess has now occupied one of them... dun dun dun.
Alright I'm done now. btw, first time poster and I like rambling on XD
Just tell me when to shut up!
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2008-10-23, 04:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- London, England
Re: Backed into a Corner
Let us know which Hook Plot (bad puns are us) you use.
Doug
Currently GMing :
Moonshae Mysteries IC / OOC / Central Map / west rooms map / east rooms map
Moonshae Tales IC / OOC / Map
Map of Area
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2008-10-23, 05:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
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2008-10-23, 06:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2008
- Location
- Baltimore
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
Alternatively, the hook could just be a doorknob for a secret door that's been disguised as a, well, a hook. Just turn and open.
Halbert's Cubicle - Wherein I write about gaming and . . . you know . . . stuff.
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2008-10-23, 08:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Location
- I live here.
- Gender
Re: Backed into a Corner
I like them all maybe I can combine them in a long line of puzzles followed by a disguised ooze. Or when someone enters the room he disappears and each player has a different sort of puzzle to work out when they enter the room. Time to get my secret note cards out!
The cake is...delicious.