The Reverse Dungeon Crawl (Inactive)

Game Master Almonihah

This seems amazing il get a concept together. So i cant be a seige owlbear paladin? Could go with the lawful tyrant archetype.

The big flaw in using that is the Int 2. You're barely sentient at that point, much less intelligent enough to be a dungeon Lord

Behir is probably on the weak side for CR8, but oh well

Yeah. a Seige Owlbear might be great for a minion, but that's about it. Not enough Intelligence to be a Dungeon Lord. Well, not unless your Awkaened or anything.

Ya. Going by CR can lead to problems sometimes if you're just out to watch the world burn.

Case in point
Thankfully, none here is just out for cheap power plays. *pointed stare*

When I get around to picking, anything blatantly over-optimized will probably not get picked. That being said... you're dungeon lords. Why would you play by the rules of this 'balance' thing? =P In seriousness, I'll mostly be trying to pick a group that would be about the same power level, just so everyone can contribute equally.

So yeah, no siege owlbear. An giant awakened owlbear anti-paladin, though... might get in.

Not a problem for us sneaky bastards. As long as you don't give me access to a optimized goody two shoes that I can possess your good. Noxsuum is all about the trickery. Not that he doesn't have a few giants in the fridge for when things get crazy. Back off I got a troll, I'll use it! O.-

Just wondering but are dungeon's limited in any way? Size, number of minions, gold spent on traps or features? Or will it be more like we run stuff by you and you clear what will or will not fly? Just curious if a system will or will not be used for it.

I would like to know this as well. Because I really want an Iron Maiden golem with a matter chef inside doing all my fancy cooking.

I would like to point out that the power level of a character like my kobold chief can easily be adjusted by adding or subtracting class levels. Or you could let me gestalt with unchained rogue... :)

Yeah, if my Professional Hero-Killer Vigilante ends up being underpowered, letting him gestalt would easily let him get more power. Probably something like Gunslinger (or Trench Fighter) for the Dex to Firearms, or Alchemist to really upgrade my posioning ability.

1) What kind of dungeon lord are you? Aim for something in the CR 9 range, whether that be a level 10 goblin shaman or a young blue dragon, or something in between.

Nuala is a debased advanced Nymph. Oh, she was on the other side once, long ago. When her forest home was deforested by humans&other humanoids(for cattle farms, no less!), her pond polluted, and her woodland friends murdered, she snapped. She found a new home underground, where humans and other surface-dwellers only come so she can exact her revenge on them. As a nymph, she still looks stunning(literally), and her fall into unseelie-ness only made her more willing to use that to her advantage, if necessary.

2) What kind of dungeon floor did you lord over? (Those chosen will have to actually build this floor)

Having aquired blighted(Nuala herself is not using it to prevent her hivemind from having warned her...if she was in the bottom dungeon floor, she could use it as well, rather than debased+advanced, up to discussion. Powerwise, should be no significant difference so if possible, would take blighted for flavor.) Fey allies(Satyrs, Dryads, and the like), which tend to employ hit&run attacks, and play with their prey, rather than brutally force confrontation, her dungeon floor has 4 larger caverns connected with each other, and a central chamber, with hidden alcoves and passageways allowing herself and her allies to move unseen and strike where doing so is advantageous to them. Said passageways are trapped, to prevent pursuit by any adventurers who manage to gain access.

3) A sketch of your character's personality and goals.

Nuala is bitter about losing her home, seeing humanoids encroach on the wild lands and destroying nature for their own gain. She is especially bitter about elves, who she considered allies, but who had done nothing to stop the other races.
To that end, she often gathers some of her minions for a "Wild Hunt", where they catch other Fey, then forcibly transmute them into Blighted ones. Her ultimate goal is to reach a critical mass of blighted Fey who can spread out and bring ruin to the humanoids lands over a wide area, purging them and forcing them to leave, so that nature can re-take what is hers.
(She considers the "blight" to be an angry aspect of nature empowering her and her allies, but natural nonetheless

4) Some discussion of what you, as a player, would like to do/see in this campaign.

As others have stated repeatedly, light-hearted fun. It's an amusing setting idea, lends itself to some tongue-in-cheek humor and clichês.
What I would love is an open-ended execution. If it's good fun, and we enjoy ourselves, it would be a pity if we go through the floors and then it's all over, and we retire. Alas, if there is some progression planned, it would need to be carefully balanced considering the wide variety of potential dungeon lords...so maybe that's not REALLY an option, but it would be sweet nonetheless.

While not exactly campaign-dependent: What I would like is a commitment to regular posting from the players. Doesn't need to be daily, but I don't think "botting" works very well with this concept, so people should find the time needed.

Just wondering but are dungeon's limited in any way? Size, number of minions, gold spent on traps or features? Or will it be more like we run stuff by you and you clear what will or will not fly? Just curious if a system will or will not be used for it.

Mostly it will be a run-stuff-by-me system. I'll give some general guidelines. Just remember--at the beginning of the campaign, your floor will be overrun with adventurers, so most of your traps will already be sprung, your minions driven into hiding or killed. There will be ways to get some of these things back during the course of the campaign, but it will be fairly limited.

Friday can't come soon enough!

I'm withdrawing my application. Have fun, everyone!

Dotting! So, just a quick sketch, I'm thinking about a lazy, unambitious dragon who's more upset about the disturbed nap than the adventurers looting the place.

1 male, 2 female: 1d2 ⇒ 2

...

That's the third time I've rolled for sex and the third time it's come up female.

Welp, time to do some research. I have until friday, right?

Actually, I said the 18th, which is next Tuesday.

My bad. Sorry.

Edit: Cool. I'll probably be refining this then. Let me know if I missed anything

1) What kind of dungeon lord are you? Aim for something in the CR 9 range, whether that be a level 10 goblin shaman or a young blue dragon, or something in between.
A young underworld dragon that's been kicked out of the nest by her parents. She assumes the shape of a teenaged human or half-elf most of the time and wears soft, baggy clothes since she's found that she likes the warmth and the sensation of soft cloth on her skin. She has a couple of levels in sorcerer, which should get her to CR 9

2) What kind of dungeon floor did you lord over? (Those chosen will have to actually build this floor)
A massive maze of tunnels with several large caverns that let her fly about. There are lava pits and lava covers the floor of the largest cavern. Her lair is in a magically chilled cavern that she discovered when she was first brought here. It's only accessible through a narrow fissure that is hard to get to without being able to fly.

3) A sketch of your character's personality and goals.
She's, in a word, lazy. She lacks ambition and had this job dumped on her by her parents who are hoping that having some responsibility would help her get motivated. So far, she's only seen her duties as interruptions to quality napping and lazing about time.

She doesn't mind the cold chambers her nest is in, despite her vulnerability to it, because it lets her indulge in another of her vices, burying herself under a pile of quilts, blankets, and furs, the softer and finer the better.

As for her goals, she'd like to find a way to be her lazy self and maintain a staff of servants to wait on her hand and foot. She hasn't figured out a way to do this that doesn't involve a bunch of work afterwards, though she thinks she's getting closer.

As for her time as Dungeon Lord, she has found most of it boring and tedious. She also hates it when it's her turn to fake the death because she inevitably winds up in a skimpy sorceress' outfit that shows off far too much of her humanoid body and always has a tendency to ride up at the most inopportune of times. Still, she has found some enjoyment in having lovely men and women be her captives and wait on her every whim.

4) Some discussion of what you, as a player, would like to do/see in this campaign.
I'd like to have a lot of fun and interact with the other dungeon lords. I'd also like to see if this winds up being the final straw that causes her to snap out of her lethargy and actually do something to obtain her goal. IF you decide to change your mind, I'd like to see her start assembling a cadre of servants and guards to cater to her whims and protect her from adventurers. It'd be fun to have her expand her floor into a dungeon in it's own right with an underground mansion serving as her lair.

Hopefully this is what you are looking for.

Oh adam. Her and the Matron would generate friction in all the right ways!
You really must be more disciplined, child. A tidy bed is the first step to a tidy and efficient torture chamber, after all!...
Don't you give me those eyes! You will have a torture chamber and you will like it, young lady!
:D

Oh boy, I can see it now. XD

Okay, thinking about it, would the GM allow me to play a young blue dragon with the change shape ability? I'm cool with trading something for it. I just thought her background would fit in with a blue dragon better.

Also think I'm going to go with Alekto for her name, or at least what she goes by. Her real name is something unpronounceable with fifteen syllables and takes thirty seconds to say.

Minions and dungeon are really going to depend on which type of dragon I play.

I'm going to bow out of recruitment. I can see that there's a lot of applicants and I'd like to give them a chance. However, when the final group is picked and the dungeon laid out, I'd love to get a chance to look at it, so I can have my players in an IRL game try to raid your dungeon. :)

Okay, thinking about it, would the GM allow me to play a young blue dragon with the change shape ability? I'm cool with trading something for it. I just thought her background would fit in with a blue dragon better.

I think that would be fine. I've always thought it odd that chromatics got left out of the whole shape-changing business.

However, when the final group is picked and the dungeon laid out, I'd love to get a chance to look at it, so I can have my players in an IRL game try to raid your dungeon. :)

Actually... I've been thinking about asking for hero parties to throw at this dungeon... :D I'd be playing them, just to avoid having twenty people all waiting on each other, but I *am* probably going to ask people for adventurers to throw into this.

So we should be noting possible encounters in our designs?

OK, a slight revision of Redelia's submission:

The kobold chief will be built with class levels in draconic sorcerer. Some levels (but less than half) may go instead to unchained rogue. If the GM decides that gestalt is good, it would be a gestalt of these two classes. I am assuming that the exact number of class levels I have to work with may be tweaked above or below the CR indicated number so the GM can adjust the power level.

By the way, his name will be Scaff.

Whoa. Gestalt would change this game entirely. Was that even on the table? Because if it was I may have more thinking to do.

I was just mentioning gestalt as a possibility. The GM has not mentioned it.

I'm not planning on gestalt, no. There's enough craziness running around as it is.

By the way, will we have a budget for these levels? Are we expected to be able to make the hazards ourselves or explain how we did it? I've been factoring this into my choices. Shin can make most of the stuff on his level by himself. All of it if he can contract out the excavation and use scrolls.

You won't have a budget, no--remember, most of your level will be in enemy hands at the beginning of the game, so a lot of the hazards will be disabled. I'll mostly be looking for floors that will give both sides of the conflict interesting options for battle rather than enforcing any kind of rules on dungeon creation.

Ok. I was wondering because you said you may be taking hero's thorough the dungeon.

Updated

Dungeon Lords
Goblin King (Male Goblin)
Professional Hero-Killer (Male Tiefling Vigilante)
Gargoyle (Gargoyle)
Vladimir Rokopatov (Male Human Vampire Veiled Blade Swashbuckler)
Shingleblitzen (Male Quickling Rogue/Wizard)
Scaff (Male Kobold Sorcerer/Rogue)
Tikkik (Male Kobold with W.M.D)
Noxsuum (Male Shadow Demon Shadowdancer)
Lord Heineous (Male Tiefling Antipaladin)
Brixton (Male Behir)
The Matron (Female Xill Matriarch)
Nuala (Female Debased Advanced Nymph)
Alekto (Female Young Blue Dragon)

Accounting for those that dropped out, our new submissions, and changes brought up.

I am thinking Noxsuum will get along with just about anyone on the list. Still considering shadow demons are tied to Nocticula and his semi hoarding characteristics. The matron would likely chase him around the place because of his misbehaving. I could also see Alekto killing his host whenever she catches Noxsuum dressing her up in her sleep as a skimpy sorceress. xP

"You can play with my toys but your paying me when you break them my dear dragoness."

1) What kind of dungeon lord are you? Aim for something in the CR 9 range, whether that be a level 10 goblin shaman or a young blue dragon, or something in between.

Meet Tim, the sociopathic CE unicorn with levels in bard and fantastic skill at beatboxing. (Think if donkey from shrek was evil)

2) What kind of dungeon floor did you lord over? (Those chosen will have to actually build this floor)

My floor is a club/concert space for an unsavory sort of crowd to listen to some great music and have a fun time. Big stage, great sound system, mosh pit of smelling like the sewer exploded, all that fun stuff. The waiting staff are extremely cute telekinetic puppy dogs. Tim cowers in a corner in the entryway the heroes come through and manipulates them into turning on eachother as they slaughter their way through the mosh pit using his patented "aura of sparkly goodness" technique. When no heroes are coming by he is usually preforming onstage, or torturing some poor fool in the dungeon (it's a requirement in the contract).

3) A sketch of your character's personality and goals.

Tim was a normal unicorn once, but after being experimented on by an evil genius, he became a deadpan snarky sociopathic beatboxer extraordinaire. After being freed from his captivity by ASPCA, Tim sought opportunities to further both his musical talent, and his newfound love of manipulation, figuring that after all he had been through he deserved to have some fun for once. Signing on as a contractor for dungeon work, he opened his club and proceeded with his life. Tim enjoys high stakes poker, witty banter, breaking the innocent, and partying all night. He treats his fellow villains with disdain, considering himself inherently superior by virtue of his sparkles and Freudian imagery. His current aspiration is to force a paladin to murder some of his adorable canine waiting staff. Arrogant, impossible to shut up, and surprisingly cuddly, this unicorn will stop at nothing to have a good time.

4) Some discussion of what you, as a player, would like to do/see in this campaign.

I want to see the interaction between the villains, maybe some higher management getting involved with some Delbert style comedy. But beyond that I'm not really picky, I feel that Tim could have good interactions with most of the people I've seen and it certainly would be a fun campaign to be a part of.

I've got a couple of ideas, but they might not all be viable. For example, if a creature is a magical beast with int 2, is there any way to fix that? I know Awaken only works on animals and trees.

You could just be the result of a mad wizard's experiment whose only effect was to raise your intelligence to human-like levels.

While I'm not actually making a submission, this is a really neat idea. Props.

FWIW, I'd be thinking something like an Wraith or maybe a Worm that Walks.

Mechanically speaking, I'm thinking a hydra with 4 bonus HD and the advanced template. If I'm right about how this works, 4 HD gives it the ability to add +1 to its intelligence, which means the advanced template will increase its intelligence (which it wouldn't normally do beyond 2). The end result would be a 9-headed hydra with CR 9, and an intelligence score of 9.

So, assuming I'm not missing anything, it works mechanically. Now I'd just need to make an actual character out of it.

I'm going to withdraw my submission. I think I have too many real world responsibilities to take on another game right now. Have fun, everyone!

More in-depth look at Alekto and her part of the dungeon. It's a work in progress, but I'm curious to see what you guys think. Feel free to make comments on the doc.

Submission
1) What kind of dungeon lord are you? Aim for something in the CR 9 range, whether that be a level 10 goblin shaman or a young blue dragon, or something in between.
A lazy, young blue dragon that was literally dragged into this job by her parents.

2) What kind of dungeon floor did you lord over? (Those chosen will have to actually build this floor)
A large complex of tunnels and massive caverns that can be divided into three zones. The first is the Warren, a rat's nest of tunnels and smaller chambers where a large tribe of goblins live. They've learned not to mess with the kobolds or Alekto's other minions, and Alekto has found them useful in wearing down adventurers. The second zone is the Keep, a collection of large (four to five hundred feet on the small side) caverns connected by a complex of worked tunnels that have been thoroughly trapped and have a large number of tunnels used by the kobolds to spy on adventurers and attack them from safety. The last part is the Sanctum. This is the "public" lair that Alekto meets adventurers in to fight them. It is connected to the larger caverns of the Keep allowing Alekto to take the fight out to where she can fly.

Her true lair is only accessible from the secret tunnels that thread through the keep and connect to the Sanctum.

3) A sketch of your character's personality and goals.
She would love to be able to laze about as much as she wants, but a stubborn sense of responsibility keeps her form neglecting her duty as a Dungeon Lord. She treats her servants kindly, though is quick to anger if that kindness is taken advantage of. She hopes to one day get out and find someplace she can be pampered and be as lazy as her heart desires, but without doing too much work.

Depending on how this plays out, those goals are likely to change.

4) Some discussion of what you, as a player, would like to do/see in this campaign.
Me, I want to have fun and play an easily flustered dragon. :)

To be less of a smarty breeches about it, I want to have fun and see the GM take advantage of the parts of Alekto's personality that would hinder her in a fight. I would love to get lots of interaction with the other dungeon lords, and I would love it if we had a chance to continue this on (I know that it ends after we beat the adventurers back, but I'd still like to see how this could develop if we do a few, business-as-usual encounters.)

I plan on not taking this too seriously, and not have Alekto take herself too seriously either. I hope that I can make it fun to read about what she's doing and thinking. I'd liek to at least get a smile or a chuckle from every post.

Nicely done, adam. If the Matron is chosen I'll probably write up something similar. Right now I'm focusing on my dungeon design. Or trying to.

Who am I kidding, it'll probably happen at some point regardless. :P

The Goblin King allows his Goblins to use the extra space in Alekto's dungeon level, kinda like the an attic. The Goblin King has nephews and in-laws that need someplace to go. Sometimes, other surface tribes get wiped out, so he moves those tribeless Goblins into That Level.

It usually works, those Goblins die by Dragon or by adventurers sword.

The Mistress frets over that area almost as much as the goblin's main lair. She's fine with it being messy, they are goblins after all, but when their sink starts getting into the dining room those little pests better take cover!

Haha I was just thinking about what kind of minions might reside on Brixton's floor.
I'm envisioning that, in his quest to impress the other dungeon lords, he got a bunch of magical beast pets to show how he can be responsible and manage minions as well.

He forgot about them since then, and they're just kinda roaming around the lair, amongst all his other failed projects.

Haha. His entire floor is just a hectic series of random monster encounters. :D

Well it won't be random. They all have nametags that say 'Fluffy', since that is what you name pets. All of them. Brixton thinks it gets mighty confusing, but he's not going to complain if that's what you're supposed to do.

Who's bright idea was it to put drakes, pixies, and gibbering mouthers in the same room!
-Some poor sap on Brixton's floor before getting eaten by a grue

I'm glad you guys like it. I've probably gone overboard and made Alekto's floor a full-fledged dungeon. Making the map is going to be a bear, but I think I can handle it. The part I'm most looking forward to is detailing the Keep. You guys have heard of Tucker's Kobolds, right?

Can't say that I have.

GM, how much space are we going to have in this dungeon? Because if I'm not careful mine's gonna get pretty big pretty fast just like adam's

Updated

Dungeon Lords
Goblin King (Male Goblin)
Professional Hero-Killer (Male Tiefling Vigilante)
Gargoyle (Gargoyle)
Vladimir Rokopatov (Male Human Vampire Veiled Blade Swashbuckler)
Shingleblitzen (Male Quickling Rogue/Wizard)
Tikkik (Male Kobold with W.M.D)
Noxsuum (Male Nightmare Shadow Demon Shadowdancer)
Lord Heineous (Male Tiefling Antipaladin)
Brixton (Male Behir)
The Matron (Female Xill Matriarch)
Nuala (Female Debased Advanced Nymph)
Alekto (Female Young Blue Dragon)
Tim (Male Unicorn Bard)

Accounting for drops and adds. :)

I am adding the nightmare template to Noxsuum, just seems to be a perfect fit for him. Have no idea how I missed it. Those silly adventurers don't understand that even if they escape, they can't hide from me or my lordly fellows. Anyways sometimes a demon just likes to go window shopping for when they are looking for that special body needed for that special occasion. >:D

All this floor talk has me itching to flesh out my own floor a bit more in detail. Sadly short on time due to my job, but I think I will do a little work on it in a day or two. Going to show what a tricky rascal Noxsuum is and the little surprises he keeps for those uninvited guest. I think the main theme will be, nothing is what it seems.

P.S. Adam are you referring to the kobold dungeon from hell, makes high levels weep. Because the wee kobolds are smart and don't fight fair. Cause I know about it a little, still their are worst out there. I've seen it, Tucker took it easy. O.O

Yep, that would be the Tucker's Kobolds I am referring to. The Keep is going to be the biggest pain point on the mapping because of the huge caverns that let Alekto fly around and zap people and the tight, spaghetti-like maze of corridors and tunnels that connect them, and happen to be full of traps, murderholes, secret kobold-sized doors, and a well organized clan of kobolds that know every nasty trick in the book.

Actually, not fighting fair could describe most of Alekto's minions. The goblins excluded, of course. (Then again, she really doesn't claim them. It's more like they infested the Warren and won't go away.)

Basically, my rules for the dungeon floors are going to amount to, "Make sure there's space for at least five encounters, and then you can have whatever else but it probably won't be used unless you lure the heroes into the other rooms". XD I'm still deciding on if I want to specify anything more than that, but I think for this campaign, I'll probably leave it loose like that.