I'd love some input from you guys. So here's a little background.
A rouge in the party (avg partly level 17) is going to come across a map. The rouge is the sort of rouge that's like Indiana Jones. Finder of lost treasures etc. He's heard about this map, it's legendary. Everyone seems to know something, but nothing really ties itself together. Remember the Island of Lost Toys from Rudolf? It's something like that. It's the hiding place of rare items (or so they've heard). What it really is, is a dumping ground for the gods. It's a secret almost unfindable island without the map. Over the years and through evolution, monsters have come to live here, even some humanoids. It's a very strange, magical, POWERFUL island.
It's planned the party will land here when they reach 21-22 level. So, I need some nasty ideas. I'm using an Undermountain Map I downloaded from Paizo. So some trap ideas would be cool too. They'll need to be around 25-26th level once it's complete.
Gah!! This thing took like over 30 minutes before it showed up. You'll see I posted this "topic" twice. One has a little more info then the other.
Hmmmm...
Pit trap that drops a specialized Iron wall spell that has holes in it that allow the spikes to pass through, reflex save to avoid or 10d6 damage, plus falling damage if they don't fly, plus the spike damage (I maximize the spike damage due to the crushing weight) plus crushing damage and the max spike damage per round until they are free.
A Massive construct gardian sounds like a good protector. (maybe thats Baccob's contribution). CR 28 sound good?. Have a red dragon great wyrm track the party all the way to the island and then when they get there show himself just to be mangled by the Gaurdian in front of the PC's. If they are smart they will realize how tough it is and will have to keep an eye out for it as they traverse the Island. Then after they are almost done they find that the true treasure is inside the body of the golem. But now they have the power and equipment to take it down.
Another death trap. An advanced purple worm magically transmuted to look like a long tunnle. 80ft into the tunnle/digestive tract the worm comes back to life with the party inside
Just off the top of my head hope you like it
Pit trap that drops a specialized Iron wall spell that has holes in it that allow the spikes to pass through, reflex save to avoid or 10d6 damage, plus falling damage if they don't fly, plus the spike damage (I maximize the spike damage due to the crushing weight) plus crushing damage and the max spike damage per round until they are free.
Then after they are almost done they find that the true treasure is inside the body of the golem. But now they have the power and equipment to take it down.
Another death trap. An advanced purple worm magically transmuted to look like a long tunnle. 80ft into the tunnle/digestive tract the worm comes back to life with the party inside
Nice Sexi Golem 01
Yes yes, see Zogonia in Dragon #338; pit trap with falling block - it's classic!The big golem is cliche, but hiding the treasure IN the golem is wonderful.
Mmmmmm purple worm tunnel, another wonderful idea.
I posted a desciption of a standard pit trap with reverse gravity activated on bottom and area dispel greater magic on top in another thread but here is the gist of it:
Camo pit trap with spikes (50 feet deep); falling onto spikes activates Reverse Gravity spell; fall upwards 50 feet past companions and up another 50 feet impacting on another set of spikes and unleashing an area effect greater Dispel Magic; PC now fall the 100 feet back down to the spikes. Rinse and repeat if necessary.
You can do other evil things like put oozes in the pit traps, or half way down them for extra effect, eg arcane ooze (MM3).
I take it that this is not set in Eberron? If it was you could have things from the destruction of Crye land up on the island.
I love MM3 for some interesting high powered foes. Necronaut is nigh unturnable. A trapped Eldritch Giant could make really good use of the magic items available.
Anyhoo that is me done, anyone else with cool ideas?
igi
Pit trap that drops a specialized Iron wall spell that has holes in it that allow the spikes to pass through, reflex save to avoid or 10d6 damage, plus falling damage if they don't fly, plus the spike damage (I maximize the spike damage due to the crushing weight) plus crushing damage and the max spike damage per round until they are free.
Then after they are almost done they find that the true treasure is inside the body of the golem. But now they have the power and equipment to take it down.
Another death trap. An advanced purple worm magically transmuted to look like a long tunnle. 80ft into the tunnle/digestive tract the worm comes back to life with the party inside
Nice Sexi Golem 01
Yes yes, see Zogonia in Dragon #338; pit trap with falling block - it's classic!
The big golem is cliche, but hiding the treasure IN the golem is wonderful.
Mmmmmm purple worm tunnel, another wonderful idea.I posted a desciption of a standard pit trap with reverse gravity activated on bottom and area dispel greater magic on top in another thread but here is the gist of it:
Camo pit trap with spikes (50 feet deep); falling onto spikes activates Reverse Gravity spell; fall upwards 50 feet past companions and up another 50 feet impacting on another set of spikes and unleashing an area effect greater Dispel Magic; PC now fall the 100 feet back down to the spikes. Rinse and repeat if necessary.
You can do other evil things like put oozes in the pit traps, or half way down them for extra effect, eg arcane ooze (MM3).I take it that this is not set in Eberron? If it was you could have things from the destruction of Crye land up on the island.
I love MM3 for some interesting high powered foes. Necronaut is nigh unturnable. A trapped Eldritch Giant could make really good use of the magic items available.
Anyhoo that is me done, anyone else with cool ideas?
igi
YES!!! I love that camo trap. There's going to be an abundance of contructs, some gone horribly wrong in creation, some used by Gods for a time and then discarded here.
I thought that since they're being brought in by "special" ship, there'd be a welcoming party waiting for them. I was thinking something like 3-4 mountain giants with 10 or so levels of barbarian tossing rocks.
Why not have a pit trap that once they are in closes off at the top and then there are a couple of area effect spells such as cloudkill, delayed blast fireball, and a few other nasty spells that I can't think of come into play. Ooooh, fire storm. But before those spells come into effect they all must make a reflex save after they take falling damage in order not to be entangled in the mass of ooze and vines in the bottom of the trap. And just to top it off Mordekiens (sp?) Disjunction. But maybe that last one is a little over the top. Stuck on an island and having no good equipment would suck but just think of the new equipment that they could get.
later
Don't forget to add in a Polar Bear.
Island of Lost Toys.
What are toys for gods, people - I see your island as a great opportunity for a custom race - one the gods though to powerful or prideful to walk the earth. Me I see a race of giant warlocks, with artifact level weapons (to big for the PCs to use effectively). But whatever floats your boat.
Also monsters pets - along the lines of cerberus, fenris, midgard's serpent, etc.
Could also add a few cities that the gods felt had to be wiped of the map - this is where they got wiped too, powerful civilizations that failed to give the proper resepect.
Could be a holding cell for prisoners of the gods - a sort of penal colony for celestials and divine miscreants - stripped of some of their divine power, access to their portfolios, and their worshippers. Old displaced gods might be relagated there as well.
Another aspect of the island could be that NOTHING leaves - hence its utility as a dumping ground.
Interesting idea. I would probably but it behind the wind or some mini plane of its own - to explain why it was so had to reach. What I would have the characters struggle to reach is a gate or portal to this island, while the location of the island itself remained an unsolvable mystery.
Hard to make the island work and make sense - so many pwerful folk/beasts/item in one place. You might want to divide it into very clear regions (cells) - separated by some type of barrier, mountian range, wall, desert, magic.
What is cool about your idea in part is that it gives you the opportunity to throw epic lelve PCs into an environment where they are wildly outclassed by even "peasants" on the island - and environment where they aren't thte biggest baddest things in town and need to be very careful, and spend a lot of time runnng for their lives.
Island of Lost Toys.
What are toys for gods, people - I see your island as a great opportunity for a custom race - one the gods though to powerful or prideful to walk the earth. Me I see a race of giant warlocks, with artifact level weapons (to big for the PCs to use effectively). But whatever floats your boat.
Also monsters pets - along the lines of cerberus, fenris, midgard's serpent, etc.
Could also add a few cities that the gods felt had to be wiped of the map - this is where they got wiped too, powerful civilizations that failed to give the proper resepect.
Could be a holding cell for prisoners of the gods - a sort of penal colony for celestials and divine miscreants - stripped of some of their divine power, access to their portfolios, and their worshippers. Old displaced gods might be relagated there as well.
Another aspect of the island could be that NOTHING leaves - hence its utility as a dumping ground.
Interesting idea. I would probably but it behind the wind or some mini plane of its own - to explain why it was so had to reach. What I would have the characters struggle to reach is a gate or portal to this island, while the location of the island itself remained an unsolvable mystery.
Hard to make the island work and make sense - so many pwerful folk/beasts/item in one place. You might want to divide it into very clear regions (cells) - separated by some type of barrier, mountian range, wall, desert, magic.
What is cool about your idea in part is that it gives you the opportunity to throw epic lelve PCs into an environment where they are wildly outclassed by even "peasants" on the island - and environment where they aren't thte biggest baddest things in town and need to be very careful, and spend a lot of time runnng for their lives.
I like the sound of all that. In all reality you could have anything and everything there and have a good enough explanation for it. I'd throw in some stuff from other religions, things from classic Greco-Roman mythology or perhaps Norse or Egyptian. Like Kyr wrote, perhaps old gods that have lost their worshippers are cast here, which is where these old gods could have gone.
A bit from my Hoarde.
pit trap with falling block - it's classic!
Oops, I forgot to finish the trap description. The iron wall is only 6in thick and the spikes are about three ft long. So it is still a perfectly good pit trap after the wall drops. So then another walll drops 3 rounds later, and another one three rounds after that. Had a lot of fun with that when the fighter carved the trapped rouge out with his sword and the cleric jumped down to heal him. *evil grin*
No offense, but with all this talk of places of imprisonment: can anyone say "Tarterian Depths of Carceri"? That would be the multiversal garbage dump/prison.
Now, make the island a new sublevel OF Carceri, the one for the stuff so bad no one even knows it's there, and we're talking! Balor Sor 10/Ftr10 with several artifacts and 3 Half-Fiend Ancient Red Dragon companions (max HP for all, of course!) ought to do nicely for at least one encounter. That's something that can make even epic level characters (ones just starting into the levels above 20) run like crazy. Throw in a few mariliths and a 15th level Wizard just for good measure. And traps.
Overkill? Hopefully!!! This is the place for the baddest of the bad! You know what, forget the classed-out Balor. Have a forgotten demon lord there that would make Demogorgon cry, and replace those minions with about 5 Klurichirs (sp? FF) as helpers. And traps.
Almost forgot: Add some type of lethal energy subtype or something to the planar region this is in, and of course give the BBEG immunity to that. Perhaps a suffocating negative-energy laced acidic atmosphere? Ya..... >8P
I just had another thought. Dragon #338 did the ecology of the spell weavers and how they 'lost' the locations of their nodes. Maybe this island could be the location of a node. You could have the PCs followed by some powerful spell weavers who want to reactivate the node. The gods may have plaved guardians to stop the node from being reactivated, but the guardians don't distinguish between spell weavers and other species. Maybe the island has dead or mutated versions of the spell weavers that survived the cataclysm of node destruction.
igi
You are all over-looking the best and most bad-assed opponent of all on this island. Think: who place all this stuff here? The Gods! You think that they might have on of thier Avatars pop in periodically to keep an eye on the place? Or perhaps have several of the Gods take turns leaving an Avatar on guard here? Not to mention all those powerful followers and minions the Gods have access to! Oh, this is making me salivate just thinking of the damage potential... >:-}
Everyone. You've all had some pretty sweet ideas and I can't wait to put them into place. It's going to be a while before they address the affairs of the Island. I will return to follow up. I plan on using, at one point or another, just about every idea that was posted. I will let you all know the outcome of your devious plans.
thank you, thank you, thank you