The Reverse Dungeon Crawl (Inactive)

Game Master Almonihah

At least five encounters that the adventurers face? I think I can just manage that. :P

At least five encounters that the adventurers face? I think I can just manage that. :P

Five encounters of you running into adventurers that have wrecked your floor. ;)

Ohhhhh! We are deaigning our own challenges? I thought we were designing the pre-hero version then letting you wreck it!

I thought we were designing the pre-hero version then letting you wreck it!

That's what I'd intended. I can see how my earlier statement would have made you think otherwise, though. Sorry to disappoint. I'll want five places in which I can place hero encounters of my designing into the dungeon of your designing. Is that more clear?

Gargoyle (Gargoyle)

For what it's worth, I'm thinking I'll add Slayer levels to bring the gargoyle up to CR 9.

Choon wrote:

I thought we were designing the pre-hero version then letting you wreck it!

That's what I'd intended. I can see how my earlier statement would have made you think otherwise, though. Sorry to disappoint. I'll want five places in which I can place hero encounters of my designing into the dungeon of your designing. Is that more clear?

Got it. Sounds good!

AdamWarnock wrote:

At least five encounters that the adventurers face? I think I can just manage that. :P

Five encounters of you running into adventurers that have wrecked your floor. ;)

I can do that. I hope you don't mind if I act like I'm designing this to send a party through though.

Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. You still have to pick whose floors you wreck first. :)

Oh, so if we're talking floor plans, I've been thinking about them. I would place some haunts around, those or refluffed traps. Eerie mist that is actually a cloudkill, skeletal hands reaching from the floor, animated torture instruments.
As for minions, some undead, but only the classy and flavorful ones, like Drowned Maidens, Hanged Men, Murder Crows and the like. Additionally some Beheaded flying around for style points and intel gathering. Mainly, though, Vladimir would use animated objects and traps.
The dungeon layout would be the hardest but potentially most interesting thing: I'm planning on having the connections change depending on either levers in my sanctum sanctorum (obviously looking like a decadent, ruined cathedral) or by the actions of the adventurers. Everyone is used to pulling a lever and having a passage open, but pulling a lever to have the rooms rearrange themselves is another thing. The place where you wanted to make a camp? Whoops, it's a bog now.

Choon wrote:

I thought we were designing the pre-hero version then letting you wreck it!

That's what I'd intended. I can see how my earlier statement would have made you think otherwise, though. Sorry to disappoint. I'll want five places in which I can place hero encounters of my designing into the dungeon of your designing. Is that more clear?

Five places when I can have hero encounters of your own designing huh? Hmmm, that'll be interesting to do, but certainly possible...

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.
Teresa is a Succubus. Once interested in opening her own full service brothel and casino, she was chased out when clergy of several good aligned deities decided to end her dream and burn the rather successful business to the ground. She decided to set up shop in the dungeon, using it as a sort of protection for her, but has found her business in a rut, unable to make any sort of headway.

She is CR7 stock, but will have three levels of Bard to boost it up.

2) What kind of dungeon floor did you lord over? (Those chosen will have to actually build this floor)
Lush with pillows and fine drapery, her part of the dungeon seems more like a casino or brothel, even complete with a bar. However, with little to no customer and more or less just wanting her loot and taking out another demoness, she has had to defend her home from invasion. Di vising a multitude of traps and other magical defenses, with a contingent enthralled minions and other petty demons and devils.

Her two biggest, her lieutenants, are an Incubus named Xox, and her protege an Elven Sorceress named Lilend. The floor itself is filled with a small rooms that end in a mock office and bedroom/ throne room.

3) A sketch of your character's personality and goals.
Typical Succubus, but finds herself more of a flirt. She isn't normally that evil and in fact wanted to coexist with humans for a time, but due to multiple attempts to kill her, she has grown less hopeful. Her goal is to eventually clear the the dungeon and to find a group whom would be more accepting of her.

In fights she tends to be not very serious, often flirting with opponents and her own allies.

4) Some discussion of what you, as a player, would like to do/see in this campaign.
Whatever we can do in the scope of the campaign. I want have fun for everyone and the GM involved. I'd like for her to not always kill her opponents but also maybe enthrall them, or at least the one she thinks would be a boon to her service. Sometimes she may just convince them or offer them better work without magic.

Just a reminder, phase one submissions are due by Tuesday!

So no one made the Rabbit of Caerbannog?

I can just see a smarter version of that plotting to take over all the known realms.

Updated

Dungeon Lords
Goblin King (Male Goblin)
Professional Hero-Killer (Male Tiefling Vigilante)
Gargoyle (Gargoyle Slayer)
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)
Teresa (Female Succubus Bard)

As always let me know of any changes needed. :)

So no one made the Rabbit of Caerbannog?

I can just see a smarter version of that plotting to take over all the known realms.

Don't think I wasn't tempted...

I'm going to tap out. This thread gave me some great ideas though, and I might be running a campaign based on some of it in a couple months on here. Rip Tim.

Has there been any discussion of third party material yet? I'm normally against it, but I had a great idea for a character that uses a third party template.

For the sake of my sanity, I've been keeping it to Paizo material. I'm going to be busy enough keeping up with you guys without completely unfamiliar material. XD

Just a reminder, I'll be choosing the applicants that can advance to Phase 2 tomorrow evening--meaning you should get your Phase 1 applications in before 5 PM Eastern tomorrow!

Updated

Dungeon Lords
Goblin King (Male Goblin)
Professional Hero-Killer (Male Tiefling Vigilante)
Gargoyle (Gargoyle Slayer)
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)
Teresa (Female Succubus Bard)

My dungeon level will be called the Twilight Halls. Building it already and it's so fun. So far I have roughed out 9 rooms, one of which is my personal room/lair called the shadow sanctum. Not much in the way of traps yet but some nice variety of monsters/minions. Noxsuum is very open minded when it comes to that sort of thing. Sure everyone says hobgoblins are rigid soldier types, but have you ever seen one tap dance. That's how you win a battle in my book. ;D

I'm also working on "mine" (Lord Heineous's) ;)

Like I said before, Heineous was imprisoned and took control of the place. The prison is now the dungeon - originally called The Forgotten Downs, after the revolt it became known as the Spiral of Razors - a reference to the god being worshipped, Andirifkhu.

The theme is mostly about traps and whatnot, with gates and demonic planar references all around. The idea for the design is that of imprisoning the adventurers to have their souls sacrificed to fuel the gates to bring the Razor Prince's armies to Golarion.

Anyway, fun, fun times! Heineous himself is also fairly cool (even if not much on the more "comic" theme of most of my colleagues here).

For the sake of my sanity, I've been keeping it to Paizo material. I'm going to be busy enough keeping up with you guys without completely unfamiliar material. XD

Okay. I'll scrap that idea and go back to my original one.

GM_Almonihah wrote:

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

2) This would depend on how big the floors we design are, but I'm thinking it would consist of clever stonework traps and passages designed to trick the dungeon dwellers and make them second-guess themselves. The minions would be earth-themed, whether that means actual elementals or something like svirfneblin remains to be seen. Obviously, hidden stonework traps are a must... things like pit traps, traps triggered by sensitive floor plates, or even the hilarious collapsing ceiling trick are all fair game.

I was struck with a bit of inspiration, today. My dungeon would have rooms or groups of rooms that represent the gargoyle's home city's various neighborhoods or districts. So, depending on how big the dungeon floor is, one room could represent the city's temple district, with the facade of a giant cathedral taking up one wall of the room; or a group of rooms could represent the noble district, and would be populated with stone palace guards, or something.

From a dungeon design perspective, this would be a fairly well-known city, but for this campaign, I don't think that would really matter.

So, I've been working and thinking on this, because even if I don't get in, I'd like to detail this out for later use. I want to give Alekto a couple of lieutenants, a second in command that's a CR 6-7 and one or two that would be about the same CR. The problem is, I would like for this to be at least kinda funny, but I know my sense of humor can be weird at times.

I thought about playing against type, such as having a succubus/incubus accountant that has a strictly regimented routine, or having Kyton Evangelist that fangirls over cute, adorable things (if any of you have seen Log Horizon, think Henrietta when she sees Akatsuki.) I'm just not sure if this too much or out of place with the rest of the dungeon floor. I plan on having some things in the Keep that are pure schmuck bait, such as having a room with nothing but a pit trap being labeled Treasure room or putting some big treasure chest or idol at the end of a hallway filled with traps of all sorts, but I'm wondering if the goofy NPCs might be too much, especially with the goblins.

Well, given that they might be dead at the beginning of the campaign, I don't think you have to worry too much.

Remember, I'll be closing recruitment this evening! I don't think we have anyone waiting to make a last-minute submission, but if you're out there, you only have a few hours left!

'Im gonna look through that trap list. If Deception taught me anything is that traps don't have to be painful. They can be also terribly humiliating as well. Teresa would have a field day with the creative uses that she could use for the traps.

So sorry, I meant to get this in sooner! My bad for losing track of time.

SUBMISSION: Cephalon, The Many-Headed Lord

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.

Cephalon is an intelligent Hydra. Mechanically, he will be the standard 5-headed hydra, with four racial hit dice added (bringing him up to 9 heads and CR 8), and the advanced template. The four HD allow him to raise his intelligence up to 3, which means the advanced template brings it up to 7.

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

Cephalon's lair is a single massive chamber, decorated with ornate marble pillars and other fanciful things. It is partially submerged in water, which gets deeper as you progress towards the back of the chamber. This lair is serviced primarily by amphibious servants, or those with an exceptional ability to swim.

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

Cephalon is a cultured beast, and his minions typically spend their days attending to his vanity. However, his heads are often at odds with each other, and he will often spend far too much time making decisions when he should be acting. Above all, he seeks decadence, and as such has a desire for the exotic treasures that adventurers bring to him.

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

I am very excited by the chance to roleplay as an exotic character, and I am most looking forward to exploring the dynamics of an evil party made up of monsters. Also, the chance to devour a hapless hero or two would be nice.

Updated

Dungeon Lords
Goblin King (Male Goblin)
Professional Hero-Killer (Male Tiefling Vigilante)
Gargoyle (Gargoyle Slayer)
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)
Teresa (Female Succubus Bard)
Cephalon (Male Advanced 9 Headed Hydra)

Good luck to everyone, phase one is coming to a close soon. xD

Indeed. I'm crossing all 20 of my fingers. :)

All right, it's the moment you've all been waiting for! Here are the 8 submissions that will advance to Phase 2!

The Gargoyle
Vladimir Rokopatov
Tikkik
Noxsuum
Brixton
The Matron
Alekto
Cephalon

Thank you to all of those who submitted! It's been fun seeing all of the ideas. Maybe someone else will run something like this (it could be you!).

Now, for those chosen, I've put some draft character and dungeon floor creation rules in the Campaign Info tab. Please look them over and start statting out your dungeon lords and floors. If you have any questions, please ask--I'm calling these 'draft' rules because I know there will be things I haven't thought of.

I'll give everyone enough time to submit, but I'd like to be done in two weeks.

Well, just based on a brief read through, I can see that I'm going to need to pare things down by a bit.

Yeah we may want to compare numbers, I still have to double check when I have some time. But Noxsuum turned out surprising considering his non direct nature. At least items won't be an issue, no body in his natural state limits his options. That's actually good news. x)

Congrats to those that made it and better luck next time to those that did not.

I was more referring to the Warren than anything else. Six major goblin tribes with at least a dozen smaller bands of goblins and all of the natural hazards and predators that you'd find in the Underdark/Darklands; all packed into a maze of spaghetti caves. Honestly, Alekto isn't going to have much in the way of combat gear, it's the dungeon floor that needs paring.

I'll get started on this, but I'm going to be honest and say right off that this probably won't get done until sometime next week. My daughter's birthday is this weekend and my work has just gone to minimum 10 hour days making my life... Busy.

I'll have to start working on seeing just how hectic I can make certain parts of my floor before it becomes too hard to read. Should we include a room key with our floors?

Thanks for the consideration! Good luck to all of those who made it to Phase 2, and thanks to the rest of those who submitted.

Thank you! I'll start building ASAP!

I'll have to start working on seeing just how hectic I can make certain parts of my floor before it becomes too hard to read. Should we include a room key with our floors?

It would be nice to know what the rooms are, yes. :D

Well...

Awwwwww....

Can't say I'm surprised, though. I mean the OP made it VERY clear what type of creatures they wanted - poker night being poking goblins with hot irons for example - so the fact I had a neutral, professional and solo-fighting guy?

Yeah. I didn't stand a chance.

Well, hope those who got in have fun.

Will get on making my floor and character soon.
When you say 10 point buy if we have racial HD, does that mean something like "buying 16 in a stat costs 10 points normally, so add +6 to a stat"?

Will get on making my floor and character soon.

When you say 10 point buy if we have racial HD, does that mean something like "buying 16 in a stat costs 10 points normally, so add +6 to a stat"?

Yes, that's what I was going for. So treat your deviation from 10 as your racial bonuses, if that makes sense.

I think I'm also going to say that any creature with an Int of less than 8 gets raised to 8 before your point buy, but cannot be reduced below 8. Or maybe 7. Probably 7. I'll think on it a bit.

A couple of minor questions, please.
First, I'd like to change my surname from Rokopatov to Zarlatzkji.
Second, would you mind if, instead of a swashbuckler, I played a bard (Arcane Duelist)? I think that it would fit the whole "vampiric charm" better while still getting up close and personal.
Finally, would it be alright if I took the Swarm Form alternate ability? The text is a bit unclear, but I believe that it's meant to replace either Change Shape or Gaseous Form.

I just realized that Brixton is a lot more dangerous than I realized if I give him Greater/Rapid grappler. As I understand, that would mean he'd be able to do Rake 3x per round if all the grapples succeed.

He's crap at changing targets though. Just very good single target damage.

Throw in a belt of Anacondas coils and you get constrict on that. :)

Grapplers are great single target and can completely invalidate single foe encounters. They just need to survive long enough to get their thing done.

I've always interpreted rake attacks to be 'available if you're grappling a creature' not 'triggered on a successful grapple'. But even with just that you can hurt a single target a lot.

Ya, that's an attack that's available if you have someone grappled. You might have been thinking of constrict, which is automatic.

You're both right I think. Rake can be done whenever you would normally do unarmed damage if you were a normal grappler. Constrict just happens immediately when you succeed on a grapple, in addition to any other damage (such as rake).
Behir have both.

Alright, Vladimir's profile is up, and holy Abadar, are vampires strong.
Now for the dungeonmaking, for which I have already scrapped two designs.

Oh, I'd forgotten to answer your questions. Sorry!

Surname change is perfectly fine.
You could switch to bard if you wish, though since you've now built him as a swashbuckler I'm guessing you won't. :D
Swarm form is fine, and I'd say it replaces Gaseous Form.

Whoops, wrote swashbuckler but built him as a bard, XD I should not make PCs during after class...
Oh, by the way let's get dangerous: 6d8 ⇒ (7, 6, 8, 5, 6, 7) = 39
Welp, that's a lot of HP.