[PF] filling a dungeon, take 2

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Avoraciopoctules
Overlord
Posts: 8624
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
Location: Oakland, CA

[PF] filling a dungeon, take 2

Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Last December, I asked for the Gaming Den's help in filling the blank spaces in a dungeon I was planning on running. I got a bunch of great ideas, and you really helped me set up a cool game. Now it's looking like I've got the chance to run another big dungeon delve with lots of looting and tactical combat, so I'd like to ask for ideas again.

The basic premise is that a cult of kobolds and dark elves are plotting to resurrect an ancient and terrible green dragon. The dragon's soul has been mystically fused to its skeleton, but they are bypassing the wards against resurrection through drow fleshwarping. Every day, new alchemical flesh creeps over the fossils floating in a massive tank of toxic bile, and the sealed wyrm gets a little more control over its growing body.

The dungeon itself is located in the ruins of a once great city that was overrun by demons and destroyed. Adventurers have picked through the place for generations and the nearest nation actually maintains a small military garrison, but there are still some monsters and treasure about. And it's a decent place to hide from civilized eyes. After unearthing the fossils, the cultists moved them to another mostly-cleared dungeon to build their laboratory.

There are 3 phases to the dungeon.
1. Facade (top half of this)
The kobolds and drow have tried to keep this area from giving away their presence. Enough monsters to keep out casual squatters, a little bit of treasure to appease adventurers with low standards, but nothing too likely to interfere when they send parties out for scouting or resupply.

This section culminates with 3 much-weakened parallel stone bridges over a colossal chasm, the perfect place for a climactic battle. At least one of the bridges needs to collapse at a dramatically appropriate time.

2. Garrison (bottom half of this)
If adventurers have come this far, they are surely determined enough to keep going. The kobolds have begun to set up layers of traps, as well as stationing elite warriors who can snipe with repeating crossbows while riding dire weasels. A few clerics of Tiamat and sorcerers are stationed among the guards, and the kobold engineering corps have build several experimental war engines.

3. Fleshwarper Laboratory (this whole map)
This is the heart of the dungeon. In addition to the half-reborn dragon floating in a giant crystalline tank, the fleshwarpers have produced a bunch of lesser monsters with their experiments. I have been specifically asked to throw in an undead t-rex with laser eyes. Access to the labs is controlled by 2 choke points, one a sealed door followed by a staircase and the other a mechanical lift.

Those are all the specifics I've thought of so far. The party are level 9 Pathfinder PCs with standardish wealth. 3 different clerics and one inquisitor. Any suggestions?
User avatar
Wiseman
Duke
Posts: 1417
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:43 pm
Location: That one place
Contact:

Post by Wiseman »

If Tiamat is involved, you might be interested in the Dragonspawn from MMIV. They're various dragonlike monsters, many humanoid and capable of wielding weapons.

Also, if the party are all divine casters, are there any monsters that resist or disrupt divine spellcasting? (I know pathfinder demodands do, but the weakest of them is CR14.)
Keys to the Contract: A crossover between Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Kingdom Hearts.
Image
RadiantPhoenix wrote:
TheFlatline wrote:Legolas/Robin Hood are myths that have completely unrealistic expectation of "uses a bow".
The D&D wizard is a work of fiction that has a completely unrealistic expectation of "uses a book".
hyzmarca wrote:Well, Mario Mario comes from a blue collar background. He was a carpenter first, working at a construction site. Then a plumber. Then a demolitionist. Also, I'm not sure how strict Mushroom Kingdom's medical licensing requirements are. I don't think his MD is valid in New York.
User avatar
Dean
Duke
Posts: 2065
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 3:14 am

Post by Dean »

My suggestion for the bridge collapse is to let the PC's do it. Have the Dark Elves have a garrison who's job is to stop threats at the chasm and not allow further entrance. If they feel overwhelmed they retreat behind the traps in whichever manner they know to move through without setting them off. While the party is fighting on the bridge a particularly nasty unit (maybe Dark Elves on lizards or something) moves to across another of the 3 bridges during the fight to flank the party and attack them from the back. The PC's have an opportunity at this point to blast that bridge and have it take the group of riders with it to the bottom of the chasm.
DSMatticus wrote:Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. I am filled with an unfathomable hatred.
CCarter
Knight
Posts: 454
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:41 pm

Post by CCarter »

Background wise 'soulbinding' the dragon I think may work just with animate dead (blocking true res. anyway - if you had the body you could destroy it and so make it eligible for resurrection). Having the dragon skeleton just be really old would block resurrection as well - though you'd then need to make 'fleshwarping' resurrection an exception.
How do the PCs know about this? Oracles, captured kobolds, huge shipments of restricted alchemical reagents going missing?

Map looks nice in terms of different possible directions. As far as dungeon content goes, you could put in some demon-themed things left from the sacking of the city - half-fiends, demons that stuck around, fiendish creatures.

You could complicate the drow/kobold relationship more, perhaps. The drow could just be promised aid from the dragon after it is restored, but could have kobold hostages in order to ensure they keep their end of the bargain, or a sacred kobold relic or artefact. Either side could be working on backstabbing the other (the drow could be building controlling enchantments into the dragon while reawakening it, or adding a weakness to ensure it could be taken out if it doesn't agree to cooperate).

The kobolds would have some sort of leader I assume (sorceror?), while drow fleshwarpers might have added a few mutations to themselves (if you can use 3.5 material, Fiend Folio grafts or Lords of Madness fleshwarper PrC? I'm not sure what Pathfinder itself has for that area).
User avatar
shadzar
Prince
Posts: 4922
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:08 pm

Post by shadzar »

lab 3a and 3b are cells. where two failed experiments are held. they do not need food to survive and have been there for a long time craving the taste of uncorrupted flesh.

throw appropriate monsters in them.

until either door is opened both are sleeping and quietly waiting unable to be detected. when either door is open both wake up. the age of the sealed doors has made them weakened so after a few rounds of combat with either the other bursts out to join the fight.

they could be twin failure experiments or just telepathically linked or just very acute sense being the reason they both wake at the same time.

all i got time to think about tonight, but think it should stress the danger of the level if they are lucky (unlucky) enough to go there before going into the big room.

i have a partial idea, but is that a well in room 2? might be a good out of the way place and safe to camp in room 3 after clearing the cells. but if that is a well, then something will be waiting for something to pass it when returning to room 2 from room 3 because of all the noise from combat. 1st person it attacks from within the well get taken into the well with a surprise attack for no damage. find a monster like that and then just use its stuff to finish the battle.

there is goodies in the bottom of the well the captured party member can see, but it will require removing the carcass of the creature living in it to get to them.
Play the game, not the rules.
Swordslinger wrote:Or fuck it... I'm just going to get weapon specialization in my cock and whip people to death with it. Given all the enemies are total pussies, it seems like the appropriate thing to do.
Lewis Black wrote:If the people of New Zealand want to be part of our world, I believe they should hop off their islands, and push 'em closer.
good read (Note to self Maxus sucks a barrel of cocks.)
Ikeren
Knight-Baron
Posts: 849
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:07 pm

Post by Ikeren »

At at least one point, use a dragonfire inspiration bard and a group of well placed archers. Even at lower CR's, it can be a pretty substantial threat, depending on peoples energy resistance and ranged capabilities.
User avatar
Avoraciopoctules
Overlord
Posts: 8624
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
Location: Oakland, CA

Post by Avoraciopoctules »

When I'm at my best, the dungeon crawls I run tend to resemble either an 80s action movie or a 3 Stooges skit. This leaned pretty heavily toward the former, and I absolutely loved it. 1 session down, and about half the dungeon was cleared.

I equipped the elite kobolds with repeating crossbows, oil of flame arrow, and drow fire bolts. They vital-striked for ~16 damage a hit. Lesser kobolds were equipped with muskets+bayonets, and the riders on giant spiders or lizards (both capable of walking upside-down on the underside of bridges) had lances+Spirited charge.

There were also some other gimmicky and unreliable weapons. A disposable bazooka, flamethrower (if someone hit the tanks of compressed air and alchemist's fire, the person wearing them was in trouble), clockwork rifle, rivet gun turrets that shot red-hot spikes. Most ended up in the hands of PCs.

Thanks for the dragonspawn link. I used them as kobolds who had been overdosed with magical steroids and mutated into new forms.

All of the pits led to the Otyugh Underground. I played the otyughs as unfriendly 1930s gangster stereotypes. The talky one wore a bowler hat at a slant, and his buddy with rogue levels kneecapped the party's summoned kyton with a silver golf club.

The bridges were part of a big set-piece battle. Letting the party proactively wreck them was good advice, they ended up responsible for saving one bridge and destroying the other 2. One got shattered with the bazooka and an Engineering roll, and the other got melted into lava when the inquisitor hijacked Metal Gear and set off its one-use heat ray.

Did I mention the two-and-a-half story battlemech? Because it was certainly a thing. I treated each turret as a different monster (hp and AC of a kobold Expert 4 with light armor and improved cover), and it jetted along the bridge trying to knock people off before really opening up on the party with its assorted guns and rockets. My favorite was the giant fireworks salvo it used when two PCs took to the air.

The mech was wrecked, and since the high engineers will never forgive the crew for screwing up, they have gravitated to the inquisitor as their new leader. After all, he kicked the old captain into the chasm, stole her hat, and proclaimed that he was in command now. And he has stolen Metal Gear plans from the break room, so maybe he'll need them again in the future. They'll build a new Metal Gear piece by piece, better/stupider than ever before! This time they'll actually install a "roar" button.

Since the party shot up Metal Gear's ammo dump, they ended up collapsing a fifth of the dungeon (the kenku ended up spreading his wings and riding the blastwave out). But the fleshwarper experiments have not yet been interrupted, so we're probably going to have another session for the second adventure half. This time, the kobolds will know just what they are up against. There will be full firing squads with teamwork feats and dragonfire adept commanders.

The fleshwarpers are going to herd their failed experiments up from the cells below and unleash them to deplete party resources when the adventurers come back. They may also use the fiend-binding infrastructure to set up a secondary perimeter.

Finally, engineers have salvaged parts from Necrosaurus Rex and Metal Gear to construct Bionic Gear REX. The pilot sits in the ribcage, now supplemented with control panels and armor plating. One stubby T-rex arm is now a bionic grapple beam that lets REX shoot the middle of the ceiling and swing across the room. Shoulder-mounted missiles, lightning cannon, and laser monocle (enhances existing eye beams) all serve to make REX as scary at range as with its 12d6+20 melee Improved Vital Strike jaws (teeth are now drill bits for better Grab mod and armor damage).
Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
margaretB
NPC
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2014 6:44 am

Post by margaretB »

I'm interested with the Dragonspawn. The feature of the creatures are like the dinosaurs.
Last edited by margaretB on Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Post Reply