Well, am about to send my player into a swamp that has a lot of geothermic activity; so hot gysers and boiling mud; that kind of stuff all set to an Eygyptian theme; pcs are seeking a lost temple of Anubis but do not yet know it it guarded by a tribe of Sobek worshiping men, crocs and werecrocs; I would really like to have the wetlands come alive so could use any hazards or boons that the place might grant; I already have the important mobs down, but any insects or terrain hazard like sucking pools of tar and whatnot would be nice; am thinking to put a lost kingdom of apemen at the other end of the wetlands; maybe the two tribe have constant warfare; but I cannot find any monkey gods so might have to make them up
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Maybe use malaria, or some kind of "sleeping sickness" that slowly drains constitution, forces the characters to make Con checks, etc. I would only use this sparingly, or in a specific geographic area.
Also, maybe the apes worship a gigantic, ancient ape that slumbers for large periods of time? It doesn't have to be a god per se, it can just be something they worship as a god. Maybe the PCs have a showdown with it, then have to deal with a tribe of ape people after killing their god in front of them.
EDIT: Ooh, and boiling quicksand might be a nice touch too. Heated by underground thermal activity, these sinkholes are camouflaged, very quick acting, and boil you alive while you're suddenly submerged. Just a thought.
hehe somehow I got two posts going; had some wierd lag when i was posting and didnt see it come up; hmm; what issue were the mosquito guys in so I can check it out; might be an idea I can use; am thinking of usign Bahomet as animal is one of his things for the apemen; maybe have them were viking horned type helmets :) Apes with troll bloodline; hmm...am still working out Monkey Law of the Jungle; luckily I can lean on Tarzan and Disney as well as some old tales from China and India.
Malaria; hmm, doubt the pc's would fail an ordinary disease check and they can use magic to cure it; they are bout 7th level atm.
Check some of the Isle of Dread parts of Savage Tide, I recal some mechanics for tarpits there. More to come from me when I'm not stupid half-awake squirrel brained.
:)
Swarms of fire ants, nearly impossible terrain, poisonous sea snakes. You have a lot of purely natural nasty things at your disposal.
If anubis is in the area then I assume mummies will be making an appearance later at his temple.
What about brewing up some new undead? In the wetlands alligator eggs are under constant threat from red ants. They build their colonies in the nest of alligators and eat the babies the moment they hatch. When you add in sentient creatures to the mix like your croc people that seems like a perfect tragic backstory to some walking dead.
Hopefully the party will try flying to get over the horrendous terrain. What about a will-o-wisp that keeps zapping a spellcaster in the party while he tries to sleep so that he cannot prepare new flight spells. The creature then flies off and waits at a safe distance following the party as they trudge through the marsh and feeding off their misery and suffering. If the party doesn't discover the menace within a certain period maybe it will have advanced a hit die or two from the nourishment.
When I was in the Amazon the guides were pretty nonchalant about most of the risks - for example, we were swimming in the river and asked if we would be gettng into an area where there were pirana - "oh yeah, there are plenty of pirana in the river right here." was the response, " just keep moving they really only go after the dead stuff."
Pirana infested river crossings could be interesting (fiendish pirana?).
There were tarantuala in the lodge where we stayed - giant spider encounters are a must. Intelligent giant spiders with carefully designed traps - some based on webs/some not. Lots of spiders around in the Middle East.
We were walking and the only time the guide got excited was when a herd of wild boar (about 50 or so he said) were working there way through the brush around us. Evidently that about the most dangeroud thing in that neck of the woods was to excite a herd of wild boar.
So wild boar could be a good encounter; Dire Boar; Wereboar; Blink Boar; Tribesman (Trolls in my game) mounted on Blink Boar; Razor Tusks; etc. there aren't a lot of boar in Egypt but it could still work in fantasy.
When I was on my honeymoon we were going through some pretty light brush (a different trip a much less pristine chunk of the Amazon). My guide stop me once - a poisonous snake was poised on a leaf - right at the level of my head - that freaked my wife right out.
But from that - poisonous snakes are a good encounter in all of there many flavors - but arboreal poisonous snakes might be a novel touch.
Lion/WereLion/Lion Tribesmen - could be a could encounter.
Bats are also really common - werebats - etc.
There are a bunch of bird headed dieties in Egyptian lore - and Eagle Tribe in the treetops could work (human/goblin/other).
Intelligent Monkeys/Baboons with kingdoms in the ruins of men could be interesting. Demon monkeys could work too - with batlike wings and magic spears. Baboons were common in Egypt.
Crocodiles were a common enough sight too (at least in the Amazon - but Egypt used to be fampous for them now you have to go to certain areas). Giant ones could be fun. Magical ones - or substitute young dragon stats.
A banished king/pharoah - surviving in the swamp - planning a coup.
An enemy army trying to make a sneak attack on the kingdom.
Wizards gathering exotic components.
To give thinks a magical spin:
River elementals
Giant Treants
Tropical Jungle Nymphs/Dryads
Butterflies (that have the same stats as will-o-wisps) Surprise!
Muddy trails that are in actuality oozes (close enough to the truth).
Wingless evil couatl (not egyptian but since you would be tweaking them anyway - could definately fit the serpent theme) that live in the rivers/swamps and protect them from outsiders.
A tribes of specters/shadows cursed and bound to the ruins of lost cities in the swamp.
The swamp itself is a curse anyone entering it begins to age faster say one year per day - that could move play along - at death sentients become shadows/specters.
Shamanic spellcasters - with some new spells - spells designed to disorient - powerful illusions to make distances appear much shorter than they are, traps to be invisible, etc.
Gates in the swamp to the Egyptian underworld - good and bad gates - and things enter the swamp from the other side.
Giants frogs or turtles as guides to "palaces" beneath the muck.
I hope there is something there that you think is fun.
If anubis is in the area then I assume mummies will be making an appearance later at his temple.
Ooh, bog mummies! Their skin is more leathery so they are more resistant to fire than the normal ones...
Ooh, bog mummies! Their skin is more leathery so they are more resistant to fire than the normal ones...If anubis is in the area then I assume mummies will be making an appearance later at his temple.
They're wet so 10 points of resistance to fire attacks.
...luckily I can lean on Tarzan and Disney
If only every child could get such a complete and accurate education...
I like what you posted Kyr, I might have to borrow some of it.
Here are the stats to a piranha swarm and here are stats to something that could be useful with minimal modifications. I've got a file of homebrew monsters and I think a couple of them might prove useful, I'll post them here once I get them organized in a somewhat logical fashion.
I really like the boiling quicksand idea, BTW.
Thanks for the ideas all; am considering changing my apes for baboons; that might be nice; basically I have four factions; the entrance to the swamp outlaying areas have a few giant boars and some wereboars; farther in I am going with the spider ideas and maybe a small task force of feral drow; inside the hot bog proper to the right will be the grugach elves and maybe some feral halfling and maybe a couple fey; but not to many; dont expect them to be in the mix much; the main two powerful groups will be the apes/baboon kingdom vs the jungle gnolls that are werecrocks thinking to make this a bit of Baphamet aiding the apes with his beastlord aspect and yenoughwhater aspect aiding the gnolls; they dont know what the temple is but is sealed and they dont care to enter not knowing it is anything valuable they are to involved in there war; the elves and halflings keep the two groups fighting thinking it fun to instagate trouble that will be blamed on another group. Figure to use a lot of your ideas of will o wisps and stuff to make a nice random encounter chart; the mage type collecting ingrediants is a good call and will def go on the chart. I am also creating some bogs; quicksand; geysers and whatnot; the sw side of the swamp is fed by an active volcano that feeding into a very large near boiling lake so that area has much more water vapor in the air than normal; ooh; am thinking of flying perhaps vampiric leeches :)that hang in swarms; I found a good jungle book and am doing stuff for all three layers of the jungle canopy as well as the above region and some of the depths of some of the many deep bogs; strewn about are many ancient Eygptian ruins that could be explored as well; perhaps libraries of ancient tablets of knowledge and perhaps an imprisoned demigod or whatnot; am building for cr7 in a diverse group so they can handle quite a bit; I dont think flying over the jungle should give very good results as you cant see diddly in any of the pictures I have downloaded of our wetlands; no area is big enough or cleared enough to be seen; non of the races use lights in the open and the vast water vapor should make it a bit like a pea soup.
thanks for all the ideas so far, looking forward to any other ideas.
Glad there was something you could use.
Just a thought but what about a clan of Baboon looking demons, wings, magic powers etc. Worshipped by a troop of actual baboons. The baboons themselves could be changed by the worship, stronger, smarter, enhanced ambush abilities, weapons use. These demons draw some sort of power from the fallen temple they inhabit.
Oh and lest we forget The Rock's contribution to the Egyptian fantasy adventure genre - probably some rooms for Scorpions or scorpion centaurs (just use drider stats).
Also one of the things I saw that was really cool the last time I was in Egypt was the huge ship buried near the pyramids - a mystic pharonic barge that travels in the watery, realm beneath the swamp could be cool.
I would also suggest googling - Karnak, Luxor, and Giza to get some flavor touches - for example bumble bee figurines crafted from gold were a "Medal of Honor" awarded to Egyptian's for bravery - a few things like that could tune up the setting. Tweak them for drow to spiders. Gnolls could use beetles of jade, or miniature hyena skulls crafted from - human/elven bone, etc.
Valegrim - I think its cool that you let the boards participate in your game - thanks!
heh that is the great thing about this game; there is always room for more ideas; love the Pharoah barge; that is a keeper and would help explain why this temple is so far away from the Eygptian homeland; my main theme I am working on is Anubis hid something in this temple and set perhaps Bes to guard it in a deal; Bes figured the best way to guard it and have entertainments is to have constant warfare between several tribes; this would keep patrols out constantly and keep up vigilance as well as enforce a no literacy rule where anything that can read is killed; any good plan is going to have detractors so the two demon princes got involved, but then that degenerated into their mutual destruction war and they placed the secret of the temple as secondary to killing the others forces and stopping their objectives; Bes of course; hides in the background and loves it so he makes sure that no side gets an upper hand by slipping information to the halflings and such to make strikes to compensate. Now enter the PC's, they have learned from a ruin far away about this temple; they have learned that there is a device here that will help them hide from Set and other snake dieties as well as help defend against the awe/fear/terror aura of some entities and perhaps some mind control.
I am very curious what the pc's will do; which is the fun for the gm; will they befreind a tribe; will they recognoiter at all; will they try to stealth past everyone; will they just try to muscle it through; will they come up with something completly out in left feild; they are all bad guys so the elves and halflings will kill them on sight probably by making the other two forces aware of them trying; maybe leave some books around or such; heeh, easy to get lost in a swamp; hard to track things in a swamp too; I envision everyone slogging through muck about high calf or knee deep swatting flies and trying to avoid random snakes, crocks, hippos, spiders, will o wisps; sounds horrible; they will probably want to move in and take over the place; lol.
maybe leave some books around or such;
Some sort of spirit/spider/or monkey pickpocket rummaging for food throwing things about - I have had monkeys jump on my back and try to steal stuff out of my pack - near Taif in Saudi baboons will descend on pick-ups and steal stuff out of the beds (its weird to see baboons sitting by the side of the road watching the world go by, it looks like they are hitch-hiking.
easy to get lost in a swamp;
There could be spells that increase the odds in play too - especially as part of traps.
hard to track things in a swamp too;
Again there could be magic that makes it even worse - or causes the tracker to obsess on false trails - or perceive things in the tracks that aren't there - misjudge distance, time passed, or how far the party itself has come.
I envision everyone slogging through muck about high calf or knee deep swatting flies and trying to avoid random snakes, crocks, hippos, spiders, will o wisps; sounds horrible;
Again magic innate to the place or as the result of spells could make it worse - reduce movement, make running impossible give natives a bonus on trip attempts - negate dex/dodge bonuses to AC, give minuses to hit (foot work is a big deal in combat if your foot work is impaired you are in bad shape), require the application of fatigue rules, etc.
I'm glad there is stuff you can use - I hope your players have fun - evil bastiches deserve what they get.
well, everybody usually plays the good guys; wanted them to play the bad guys for once to see it is not all peaches and cream trying to rule the world :) hehe I have yet to start sending those pesky paladins at them; as bad guys they hardly rate a night in jail at the moment; hoping this campaign will bring out the heart of darkness in them :)
well, everybody usually plays the good guys; wanted them to play the bad guys for once to see it is not all peaches and cream trying to rule the world :) hehe I have yet to start sending those pesky paladins at them; as bad guys they hardly rate a night in jail at the moment; hoping this campaign will bring out the heart of darkness in them :)
Like some device in the temple allows them to draw xp for spell casting and item creation unwillingly from victims? Or for some sort of ritual that grants them special powers or extended life?
Or trading in slaves?
Or saying they are trading in slaves but really selling them to baboons or drow for sacrifice/food/life force drain?
Stealing souls from the underworld to be the sentience in magic items?
Or stealing "sanity" from people to quell some form of madness growing in them - a mystic infection from the swamp?
Or stealing innocence to belay some pact with a demon they made?
Or acquiring souls to pay off some twisted deal ala Captain Jack Sparrow?
Are they betraying family for power or lust - stealing a throne, a wife, the alliance and loyalty of children?
Do you want them to be greedy and self centered or really evil?
Are you staging a descent - or are they just not nice?
Just curious?
I don't know that I have ever seen a really evil campaign - I have mostly just seen greedy PCs call themselves evil and posture as bad asses - nothing wrong with that - especially if they are having fun - but a campaign with really "evil" behavior could be really tough - and for me as a DM unpleasantly dark.
A few ideas.
An old woman gathering firewood in the middle of a deadly area. She seems oblivious to the danger and bemused if the party try to warn her away.
A patch of reeking sulphurous mud dyes the skin orange and soaks in deep, making the party stink for days. So much for stealth.
Oil gusher makes slick and flammable terrain.
Baboons worship a flame that is just the burnoff of natural gas. Their "cleric" thinks his lack of spells is due to lack of devotion among the flock. There must be more sacrifices to appease the forever flame.
Some virulently coloured centipedes are huge and plentiful and completely harmless, but the little brown beetles are highly venomous.
A field of tiny burial mounds in the peat are filled with trepanned mummy children.
A shield guardian is rusted so badly that it makes incredible screeching sounds when it moves. The screeches are nerve-racking at night, even from very far away, and disturb the sleep of the party so badly that spell memorisation is affected.
The party are fighting a great cat or similar monster, when a frikkin huge crocodile comes out of nowhere and eats the enemy in one bite, then charges straight for the mage...
Slavers.
The terrified remnants of a mercenary company are leaving the area as quickly as they can. One of them dies of his wounds and the others just leave him in their terror. They are barely aware of the party.
Undead lurk in the mud and pull the unwary under.
Leeches.
It rains for days. Trolls attack in the rain. So much for fire and acid.
The party find clear water. Drink their fill, then find the corpse.
A harmless but itchy bout of ringworm or other parasites afflict the party.
And lastly, the party fighter hallucinates a visit from the local god and is given "instructions".
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Yuan-ti would be appropriate bad guys for hot swamp/jungle too. Hunting parties of Pureblood rangers are very nasty in the swamp because they can just change into snakes and swim/climb/hide out of sight. A mob of muckdwellers or wretchlings make good goons and Halfbloods make good mid-rank masterminds (save the Abominations for BBEG status).
Stormwrack has the stats for leech and pirahna (sp?) swarms if you want to throw in some water dangers. You could also stat up some dire crocodiles using the rules from Necromancer Games (ToH suppliment free PDF). Nothing says eek like a superagressive prehistoric croc!
I know these are usually found underground but...
Have a giant mushroom forest and have Myconids swarm the place.
Go wild with fungi and oozes (imagine a Quicksand Ooze).
As stated above, the Gargantuan Gorillon could be pretty neat.
Get them LOST in the swamp... Start counting down food and water rations... Have some of the PCs go through hunger and fatigue penalties... Have them so low on ressources that every encounter turns into a fight for their lives.
Super week-long downpoors that inhibit range attacks, spellcasting, and severe penalties to attacks and movement.
Ultradan
The Blood Bayou is a great sourcebook for creepy swamplands- any setting that has Gatormen and the kind of monsters that preempt Pirates of the Caribbean gets my vote.
Tainted or toxic waters could make the hazards of travelling into these lands that much more dangerous.
well; food and water are not really a problem for this party; two are undead and two are pretty good hunters and the cleric can make water for the couple that drink; am looking forward to one of these undead getting stuck deep in the swamp; he wont drown so I wonder what the party will do to recover him :) am definately putting in lots of plant, though not using vegepymies as we did that in the last campaign; gotta keep it fresh; toxic pools are a must though. I am thinking one area has a lot of sulphur saturation so when the shreikers go off they spew a lot of sulphur dioxide in the air; very flamable stuff; then the shambling mounds comes running or some such thing.
Blood Bayou looks very cool; but i am starting to run this on Thursday night :) I appreciate all your guys contributions; helps me flesh things out a bit more and since this group and I have been together about 12 years they know my style so you guys help throw them off a bit (gm smirk:) might try this again with the sat group I run where we been playing together since 1979
when the shreikers go off they spew a lot of sulphur dioxide in the air; very flamable stuff
SO2 is non-flammible, but if inhaled it does combine with the water in your lungs to form sulfuric acid. Very high concentrations can cause blindness as well. I'd make characters save in areas of low vapor concentration, treating it as a Con-damaging inhaled poison; at higher concentration, they'd take acid damage as well (like an acid fog spell). High concentrations in water will of course depopulate that water body.
well, am thinking with all the methane around fires could be a problem :) what might I add to the sulphur to make it burn; hmm, maybe sodium or potasium so when it rains exciting things happen; any ideas? chemestry was never my strong point.
well, am thinking with all the methane around fires could be a problem :) what might I add to the sulphur to make it burn; hmm, maybe sodium or potasium so when it rains exciting things happen; any ideas? chemestry was never my strong point.
Your methane will take care of flammability nicely. What you want to avoid though, I assume, is a situation where the sulfur-bearing magmatic hydrothermal waters from depth simply mix with the surface waters from the wetland and leave you with nothing particularly interesting. I'd create high points with travertine terraces and sulfur fumes, and lower (boggy) areas surrounding them, with methane vapors from the decaying organic materials.
Sodium in a wetland will overwhelmingly be bonded with chloride; I can't think of a geological mechanism to constantly introduce elemental sodium into the environment. Of course, if you really want it, there's always magic.
yeah, I have a lower level diety who sits in the area and messes with things so that the temple stays protected and lost; but dont like to rely on that stuff to much; do have a fairly active volcano there and lots of water, but I doubt the characters will spend much time in the sulpheric area as it is not important to the temple; the main challenge is to bypass the hazards to get to the temple area and find a way past either group and access the temple. I just want to have a basic outlay down just in case as you never know where adventurers are going to go or what they might try.
yeah, I have a lower level diety who sits in the area and messes with things so that the temple stays protected and lost; but dont like to rely on that stuff to much; do have a fairly active volcano there and lots of water, but I doubt the characters will spend much time in the sulpheric area as it is not important to the temple; the main challenge is to bypass the hazards to get to the temple area and find a way past either group and access the temple. I just want to have a basic outlay down just in case as you never know where adventurers are going to go or what they might try.
I'm cruel. I'd do it this way:
(1) Travel through swamp to reach slopes of volcano, dealing with methane, bog mummies, and other assorted hazards;(2) Climb slopes, fighting critters there (dire baboons who throw rocks and roll down boulders in ambush would be cool);
(3) In center of cone is a caldera, filled with acidic waters, with sulfur fumes above (dissolves boats);
(3) In the middle of the caldera lake is an island with the temple on it.
Geysir's might fit the semi volcanic aspect pretty well - best placed underwater (in shaloow, caustic pools )
Leech Swarms.... yummy ! (Stormwrack)
Piranha Swarms... and thinking it over, perhaps check Libirs Mortis and make them undead piranha swarms ? Everhungry, everchurning chompin' munchin' bitin' turning !
Rotten Wood - treetrunks, catwalks, galleries, Support beams, you name it
Colonies of worker ants and termites trying to digest the unliving characters and everybody else's equipment if given the opportunity.
Dire Vultures...... With a swamp and apperantly abundant wildlife, there will be carcasses (and things trying to eat them or carry them off for undisturbed feeding )
Purple worms squirming through the muck at the bottom of the swamp (or the lowest level of a temple ). Why tunnel through rock if you tunnel through softer stuff ?
Have stuff grow on the characters ( Fungi ? Lichen ? some strange glowing moss ?), especially the ones composed of dead and rotting matter. Perhaps have some flies etc. lay eggs there too ?
And the two classic monsters for swampland settings :
Hydras and Froghemoths !
Geysers might fit the semi volcanic aspect pretty well - best placed underwater (in shallow, caustic pools)... With a swamp and apperantly abundant wildlife...
More excellent ideas. I just want to reiterate, though, that the caustic volcanic pools and the teeming swamp full of organic muck can't really be one and the same body of water. Otherwise some idiot like me is likely to protest, "this makes no sense!" and create a scene instead of going along with the adventure.
P.S. Froghemoths rule! And purple worms!
What Happened - what worked what didn't?
sheesh; what a bunch of whiners my group is; never seen so many grown men cry and whine; well; a couple anyhow; hehe they only got to the entrance and stopped; only fought one boar; they killed it easily in two rounds with mostly only minor injuries; they are going to go on; but sheesh, I think they all need to watch Heartbreak Ridge and get some attitude of Adapt and Overcome; so far they are not even really trying, next game is Thursday; we will see, big tuff adventurers who want to rule the world are quaking in their boots from on little boar; ok; not so little, but sheesh; died in two rounds.
oh; and I mean entrance of the swamp; they havent even started the adventure yet.