RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Greetings, Paizonians!
My players, being the excellent and indefatigable PCs that they are, have decided not to take No for an answer.
Does anyone have any ideas for what sorts of things to throw in an abandoned and mostly-destroyed Thassilonian research facility? I'm thinking I'll probably mine "Seven Swords of Sin" for ideas, and I thought about putting in bits (read: lifing rooms wholesale) from some of the Rise of the Runelords modules.
What sorts of cool things should I throw at my party? (They are currently level 10, in case it matters.)
Thanks ahead of time for your thoughts!
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Well, do you really want them digging into it? If it were me I would let them begin the process but make it clear (after some excavation of course) that the time frame they are looking at is huge. The place is so immense and so full of rubble. Don't they have something more important to be doing, oh I don't know, in the next three months or so? Don't forget that the Red Mantis is after them also. A couple of waves of Red Mantis, stronger and stronger, should remind them that sooner or later staying in one place is not the best option here.
All that being said, if you are up for a side trek and don't mind the PC's gaining an extra level or two, not to mention any extra loot then I think creatures of the summoned from otherworldly places are in order. The place is a giant observation lab after all. They would summon things that had no business being summoned and poke and prod at them. Lots of Tentacles in the first room kind of points that all out. I think it's time to pull out the Horror/Alien invasion movie collection for some thoughts.
They would summon things that had no business being summoned and poke and prod at them. ... I think it's time to pull out the Horror/Alien invasion movie collection for some thoughts.
Psuedo-Natruals ... bleh.
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Another thought on this. How are they going to excavate it quietly? Sooner or later the noise they make is going to reawaken The tentacles, when that happens you pretty much have to shut down operations for 10 minutes or so, assuming you don't take any casualties, longer if you have to undo damage. Then there is the point that every time the thing wakes enough to explore, the whole place shakes violently, cave in anyone?
Now, if you like the idea of digging up the Accropolis, then by all means have at it. Those things can be dealt with. Good luck.
if you want to pursue this, probably later on in the campaign given the AP's schedule, have them find a narrow nigh-vertical tunnel ( say, an air duct or old chimney ) which leads into a huge underground vault or lab. Dangling above (or clinging to the ceiling) they witness some humongous golems or other construct-sentry entities below.
Things so tall, that the PCs barely reach to the ankles... Something in the "will give even an ancient dragon a very thoughtful moment" sort of class.
Say, like a ship-sized stowing-golem (look up some graphics of contemporary container-loaders for idea... then describe them to the players without hinting at the origin of the description^^), or heavy-duty semi-indestructible 30' adamantium-plated constructs working in steaming pools of acid or in front of blasting magma-furnace.... handling cauldrons and implements dozens of tons in weight, easily able to crush a mere human being without even noticing... if said human survived the noxious, poisonous or merely suffocating clouds of gases, hot ash and sudden eruptions of super-heated steam in the first place...
...perhaps, the widespread-belief that underneath the Cinderlands lies some volcanic hotspot causing the excentric environment is only half the truth ?
With the other half of the responsibility for local spontaneous eruptions, gaspockets, earthquakes and ashen clouds going to Thassilonian engineering tapping and channeling the local geothermal energy (and the controls slowly failing )...
Remember the weird volcanic forges as "Revenge of the Sith's" background setting ? Now throw in some "half-ruined nuclear power station" flavour and mad-construction-machinery going rogue on unknown variables, e.g. the PCs, stir some and play on the characters lack of knowledge of being aware of just what is going on below.
Basically, scare them off with what is lurking below, and if they insist, give them a short demonstration of just what might happen.
Advanced iron golems as a basic template, possibly with some ranged options say a "grappling-claw-and-winch" arrangement or some "sterilizing" beam of energy.... A glimpse of the awe and horror high mago-tech can and should inspire.
Thassilonian power and magical harnessing should be "lost" for a good reason.... usually the re-discoverers not surviving their curiosity !
Hope this gives you some idea