Just for the sake of conversation, how much attention do you pay to logic when stocking a typical dungeon crawl? Do you consider the effect of multiple creatures in a single environment? How about their having enough to eat? What about the effect a noisy combat would have on the rest of the inhabitants?
For example - an abandoned monestary is occupied by a band of Goblins and our heroes venture forth to loot it. First room they come to they encounter a couple drunk Goblins half asleep at the watch. They wake up and a brief combat is played out. Surely the clash of metal, screams of the injured and the like should alert the rest of the place? Next ecounter is with the entire band, mobilized to rout the invaders.
Not exactly what one expects in a dungeon crawl.
How far do you read into these kinds of situations when drawing up your games?
Rarely, in my games. The more modern published adventures tend to make a head nod at nearby creatures reacting to any disturbance. The few dungeon crawls my players journey through have monsters spaced out enough that the whole fortress doesn't swarm them, or the monsters themselves won't react (mindless undead, constructs, already alerted foe waiting behind barricades, etc).
Ya gotta be careful with the 'realism' in monster attraction. The heroes may not understand that the first fight might draw the whole dungeon down on their heads. A room full of dismembered heroes is not a fun game.
Most of the time. Great, now I have another idea for a undead campaign...
The logic of the dungeon and situation is literally the only thing I consider or care about when it comes to any part of the game, never mind just dungeon crawls.
I rather enjoy the moments that my players forget stealth, and wake the whole place it. It reminds them to think
Personally I find applying logic to a dungeon improves the adventure rather than diminishes it. I consider and follow through on how the actions of the PCs affect the other denizens. And to sensibly explain why the PCs don't get swarmed after the first fight I have to add little wrinkles to the dungeon, which in turn makes everything more interesting. Different terrain, or the relationships between different monsters within the dungeon are significant. Or, on the other hand, allow the PCs to get swarmed (assuming you have players that know when to run away - not always a given) but provide an intriguing safe haven or escape route, which of course, leads to more adventure.
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I pay pretty heavy attention to this sort of thing when I make a dungeon, but I make sure to be careful at lower levels to NOT let one noisy encounter result in a dungeon full of enemies converging on one room (that's high-level stuff).
To keep it realistic, there are several sorts of solutions I go with, depending on the situation. With creatures like goblins for example, I often rule that only particularly long-lasting fights attract suspicion from adjacent rooms, as the other goblins are quite accustomed to squabbles breaking out among each other and dismiss the sound of brief fights as "oh the guards are at it again."
If they do end up on high alert, there's lots of ways to handle that, too. Perhaps the goblin tribe's hobgoblin leader immediately organizes them into a layered defense, making each room more difficult, as the goblins are on-guard and ready for intruders without actually throwing an entire dungeon at them at once (he wants to protect his inner sanctum after all, not throw all his soldiers into the fray and leave himself exposed).
Maybe the goblins are led by a bugbear instead, and he opts to shoot the messenger, ironically causing most of the tribe to scatter to the far rooms of the dungeon as quickly as possibly and re-organizing the guard in doing so. Some might fight the PCs in an attempt to escape the dungeon before they incur the wrath of their boss, but not all of them do so.
...And of course some monsters simply don't respond. Oozes, for example, are creatures likely to stay stationary in their rooms even when alerted.
I'm careful with other areas of dungeon 'stocking' too. At the very least, I always define where eating, sleeping, and going to the washroom is done, and also where the food storage is, if there is one at all. A lone werewolf in a cave might have 'outside' as his designated grounds for eating, hunting, and relieving himself, for example, while the undead forces of a Lich Necromancer might forgo all such 'essentials' that the living normally have spaces for. Maybe his keep has a dining room converted into a laboratory, though, or an old lavatory that's fallen into disuse since none of the undead need to use it. Maybe the poor rogue who last tried to loot the place has been hiding there from the undead and clinging to life by eating fungus and drinking septic water. It's the little touches that turn "25x25 room with 3 doors and 4 wights" into a real fleshed-out encounter, after all.
I try to keep it in mind but the fun in the game always comes first. RPGs are a far cry from realistic in other ways (falling damage anyone?) and suspension of disbelief is rather stretched at the best of times.
That being said, as a biologist it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine to see ancient dungeons with locked doors, trapped corridors and 10x10 rooms that are somehow inhabited by (mortal) predators. How the hell does a tribe (herd? pack? clusterf***?) of owlbears survive when there's 500 feet of solid rock and deadly traps between them and the nearest prey?
In dungeon crawls I try to at least feature some way that the living enemies could survive (e.g. tunnels to a cave system, an air-shaft big enough for flying monsters etc...). If that is not an option, I mostly stick to undead, constructs or summoned/bound outsiders.
Additionally, I don't allow easy resting in dungeon crawls with living enemies. The orcs in the next room will have to use the bathroom at some point and won't stick around in the 20x20 lightless room for 24 hours a day.
Just for the sake of conversation, how much attention do you pay to logic when stocking a typical dungeon crawl?
The logic always comes first.
Or, to be more accurate, the story comes first. The logic second. Everything else third. I'm willing to tweak logic for a more interesting narrative, but only as far as I can get without breaking immersion.
Just for the sake of conversation, how much attention do you pay to logic when stocking a typical dungeon crawl? Do you consider the effect of multiple creatures in a single environment? How about their having enough to eat? What about the effect a noisy combat would have on the rest of the inhabitants?
Yes, I generally consider all of these when crafting dungeon crawls. The players don't care when I describe the walls as coated in mold, but ONE time a canny player asked about the stuff and realized it'd been scraped off here and there. A few rooms later he found goblins cooking a stew with mold and rats in it.
I try to add subtle details like rats, edible fungi or other food/water sources to my dungeons. I also consider the monsters as part of the food chain. If the story line dictates that the creatures in a dungeon have been there a while and there's some dangerous undead for example in the same area as, say, a band of mites and their vermin, they'll have subtle signs they can read to warn them away from it's feeding ground. Since both vermin and mites have powerful senses of smell they might use scent marking.
The point is I want the dungeon to make sense. We're not playing a board game; the PCs shouldn't expect to just kick in a few doors, stab everything and loot the bodies for an easy payday.
By the same token though I use the personality of the monsters to define the space and mood. I've had 2 dungeons recently: one was a pixie sorceress with a bunch of constructs in a tomb, the other was a couple dozen goblins serving a warlock trying to raise a dead Patron.
In the pixie tomb the sorceress was on alert for the PCs from the beginning and had Tiny sized tunnels through the walls of the place. For this reason the PCs were constantly being hassled by cantrips, seemingly from nowhere while also trying to deal with the traps, animated objects and homunculi of the place.
With the goblins the place was slovenly, disorganized; I made Perception checks during fights for the next set of creatures but they never made it since they were far away and the fights didn't last that long. But the party also ran into 2 wandering encounters as these chaotic creatures frequently wandered away from their posts. Their warlock master was so busy with his ritual he really didn't care what was going on topside; down in the pit he was going to sacrifice a dude and reap untold powers.
So yes, I try to employ logic in my dungeons. I don't want to overwhelm my players, but on the same note I don't want them playing chutes and ladders. If you're going to employ these tactics just remember: distance imposes a penalty to Perception checks (-1 per 5', or maybe its 10') and not EVERY monster is on constant alert for danger.
The point is I want the dungeon to make sense. We're not playing a board game; the PCs shouldn't expect to just kick in a few doors, stab everything and loot the bodies for an easy payday.
WHAT???? You deny the logic and realism of Munchkin??? Heathen, Heathen, come brothers and favourites of SteveJacksongames and tear this heretic unbeliever limb from limb ... after skinning him off course.
Or did you make 'clerical errors', because that the only thing that might keep you from oblivion??? ;)
I don't give this too much thought, except that monster encounters tend to be spaced out. Monsters are only found in roughly one in three rooms. Furthermore, I draw a distinction between dungeons and lairs. A dungeon is not directly controlled by a single entity (guys like Halaster Blackcloak don't qualify as they are hands off, generally leaving the creatures that inhabit Undermountain to their own devices. Even the Whispering Tyrant doesn't really control Gallowspire anymore.) A lair is controlled by a single set of inhabitants. A lair will be harder to defeat as it's inhabitants will generally work together better.
Another thing is that I try to only put beasts in chambers connected by open cooridors, rather than rooms with sealed doors.
Thanks guys. Ive been a roleplayer for over 30 years but havent played D&D (or its likeness) for more than 20. The RPing Ive ran has always been fairly realistic/serious/narrative based and the story was king. I was a little uneasy about how loose to run Pathfinder, given its origins but I can see Im in like, and welcome, company.
I do possess the urge to make dungeons that seem like a real place where real creatures would live and I let it into my games, but I temper that urge with the knowledge that the gaming group will remember unique and/or climactic combats and RP situations, not inconsequential details.
Thanks guys. Ive been a roleplayer for over 30 years but havent played D&D (or its likeness) for more than 20. The RPing Ive ran has always been fairly realistic/serious/narrative based and the story was king. I was a little uneasy about how loose to run Pathfinder, given its origins but I can see Im in like, and welcome, company.
That's the thing, I think you'll easily find some of every type of player here :) The ruleset doesn't really lend itself specifically to one type of playstyle, so you'll find a good mix of people using it different ways (and almost certainly like-minded people somewhere in the mix.)
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I tend to spend countless hours when designing a dungeon figuring out how the inhabitants survive and to make matters worse, most dungeons are really just repurposed from previous structures so each room, section, area has to be designed with its original purpose in mind and then I figure out how the new inhabitants are using it.
but for me this is one of the best parts of being the DM, I am able to write stories within stories that my players may never know or care about but they are there all the same.
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I tend to spend countless hours when designing a dungeon figuring out how the inhabitants survive and to make matters worse, most dungeons are really just repurposed from previous structures so each room, section, area has to be designed with its original purpose in mind and then I figure out how the new inhabitants are using it.
but for me this is one of the best parts of being the DM, I am able to write stories within stories that my players may never know or care about but they are there all the same.
Yup :) I'll sit there and come up with the whole back story of the orc tribe (or whatever) killing the previous occupants, and figure out who then settles into each room.
And chances are nobody else will ever know any of it.... Ah well, maybe something to reuse and write it properly later!
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I prefer for my encounters to 'make sense' as well, and if something logically might prove to be a problem, I'll redesign the area to make it less of a problem (so, in a situation where the entire dungeon would come crashing down after a single encounter, I'll collapse some tunnels so that sound won't carry as far, or reinforcements won't be able to arrive for some time).
I even had one encounter with a group of raiders operating out of a legendary harsh and lifeless salt-flat desert, and when a player asked 'what do they eat and drink out here,' they discovered that the raiders were not real people, but had been created by a mirror of opposition, and, one of them being a highly intelligent wizard who knew how such a mirror worked, explained to his fellows that if they defeated or killed their originals, they would all cease to exist. They dropped a fog cloud and beat a hasty retreat, since, fake opposition duplicates or not, none of them wanted to *cease to exist.* They retreated into the 'impassable desert' (to hide from their 'originals') and were raiding caravans for fun and profit, enjoying the fact that they didn't have to eat or drink (being artificial creations), and yet had all the perks of being 'alive,' while their wizard did some spell research in hopes of finding a way to make themselves 'real' (which, signs were indicating, would require them to capture and sacrifice their 'originals...').
That said, I was always amused by old classic adventures, in which entire groups of creatures lived in rooms separated by 20 ft. of passageway from other groups of creatures that they apparently had never met before, none of them having any food, any source of water, or, apparently, any desire to leave the thirty foot room they had lived in all their lives.
"And in this room, we have a creature that is too big to actually ever enter or leave the room! And it's hungry, because it apparently hasn't eaten anything for 400 years!"
I suppose this is why so many ancient tombs are primarily occupied by undead and constructs. No care or feeding required.
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Use the 5 room dungeon template and space out the dungeon w/empty or non-sequitor rooms.
Room 2: Trap or RP situation - if Room 1 had a monster, Room 2 has some non-combat kind of obstacle or perhaps a monster/encounter that has an obvious non-combat type of resolution (riddle, hostage negotiation, etc)
Room 3: Trick or Setback - perhaps another monster or trap, but something that drains resources and keeps the party from moving to their final resolution. Perhaps they can see their goal on the other side of a chasm, but the bridge is out; maybe there's a pit fiend guarding the bridge
Room 4: Final Showdown - the PCs face off against the final obstacle in the way of their goal. This might be a dragon on its hoard, the villain they have to beat so they can capture and interrogate it, or whatever. Essentially this is the BBEG
Room 5: Resolution/Reward/Plot Twist - the loot at the end can be here, but it might also be some kind of a head scratcher too. Perhaps the gold is false, the dragon was an illusion or the butler turns out to be Mr Body all along. This final room provides the conclusion of the hack and perhaps establishes the next one
Now imagine using this template to craft a dungeon w/12 rooms across 2 levels:
Room 1: The Haunted hall/CR 1
The unstable nature of the ruin and the hilside means that there is only one approach to entering the area of the abbey that's still worth exploring. This approach is through the ruined great hall. Entering this the PCs are drawn into a ghostly interplay between the Abbey Matron's spectre and some unseen agent in which she condemns one of the sisters to rot in a cell below. The place then erupts in ghostly flames.
The PCs have to find and douse the bones in the fireplace with holy water. Conveniently, they passed a font of it on their way in if they don't have any of their own.
Additional rooms amid the ruin: there are 3 other explorable areas on the ground level. These contain some innocuous mold (empty), some unliving corpses (CR 1 encounter w/zombies) and an open courtyard w/a Murder of Crows (CR 2 swarm). The final area is a mausoleum with a locked door.
Room 2: Sepulcher of the Weeping Maiden/CR 1
The chamber inside the mausoleum has a sepulcher in its center and a shrine around a weeping statue at the far end. Canny players (Perception DC 15) notice that the water from the weeping statue pools around the sepulcher but does not flood the chamber.
A secret door is contained beneath the sepulcher. Activating it however involves moving the statue (Str check DC 17) which in turn releases 2 giant centipedes if not done correctly (Disable Device DC 15)
The lower halls: the sepulcher, once moved, reveals a flight of steps. There are a couple passages with old crypts; undead wander these halls. A few of the antechambers are also infested with giant vermin. PCs must traverse through at least some of this circuit of interred corpses to arrive at the next set piece.
Room 3: The Vault/CR 2
This barrel-vaulted crypt has six grand cysts, 3 on either side, with a coffered iron door at the far end. No matter what light the PCs have, the chamber is perpetually cloaked in Dim Light. 4 unique skeletons haunt this hall. The door at the far end is locked with a ridiculously hard lock but a key dangles in plain sight. It is spiked in place (no Mage Hand) within one of the grand cysts.
Each of the cysts is enclosed by iron grating. there is a single portcullis to each set of cysts. The first PC to enter the side w/the key activates the skeletons who have the ablility to disassemble/reassemble around the grating, allowing them to treat the bars only as Difficult Terrain. 2 attack characters OUTSIDE the key's cyst, while 2 tag-team on whoever is trying for the device itself.
Room 4: The Final Crypt/CR 4
This vast, vaulted hall has a raised dais at the far end. Several brain-eating zombies gather at the foot of this, waiting to eat a trio of mortals dangling above them and being controlled by Lady Gothmorgue, a ghoul sorceress 2. She compels a couple of her "children" to deal with the heroes while the rest feed. She backs them up with her spells.
Room 5: No Way Out/CR 3
With Lady Gothmorgue dealt with the PCs still need to rescue the kids. There is a slavering horde of zombies at one end of the hall and the sound of more undead, freed from the lady's control, is filtering in from the Vault behind the party. They have the kids but must quickly search for the escape hatch mentioned by the Abbey Matron's Ghost in the first scene, referenced again somewhere in the mausoleum and perhaps noted a third or more times in the extraneous chambers.
This is a paraphrase of a dungeon I ran years ago. Feel free to laugh at it, steal it or whatever you'd like. Its an example though of how to sort of logically make your dungeon fit your vision.
I tend to really over-analyze the logic of lairs and dungeons. It's not just a matter of 'where do they cook food?'. Where does the smoke from the fire go? How do they keep it from spreading to living/sleeping areas? Where do they poop? Where does that go? Is it just a shallow pit, or does it drop into a cavern system from which something could crawl up? Was the space always separated into rooms, or has a larger space been partitioned with curtains or wooden walls?
I try to apply what I know of the monsters behaviours to their environments. Are they lazy? This means they might put certain rooms close together even if a more suited room exists but further away.
This also means that characters who make successful monster lore checks can gain insight to their surroundings.
I try not to go into so much detail because it takes a lot of time, but damnit I'm an Architect. I really like Mark Hoover's solution though. That could really streamline the process. I could do that first and then just throw in details in the surrounding rooms.
Where do they poop? Where does that go? Is it just a shallow pit, or does it drop into a cavern system from which something could crawl up?
And *that* should give you a great idea for the first trap the PCs will wander into.
The old school answer is of course to not worry at all about this. Giant A in 10 by 10 room and Dragon B right next door with orc tribe down the hall. What you want to worry about is fun not reality.
Most modern designers do try to take these things into account. What do the dungeon inhabitants eat, where do they sleep, how do they react to noise, etc. but there are limits because there is only so much space on the map and in the page count.
Fortunately there are many ways around these issues.
1. Chaotic creatures are chaotic and often fight amongst themselves. If the whole goblin tribe came running every time there was a crash or scream they would do nothing else all day except run back and forth.
2. Dungeon inhabitants are often at odds or in competition. Bugbear A doesn't care if the orcs down the hall get killed but he might be ready for whatever did the killing.
3. Unintelligent monsters are well...unintelligent. They act in dependable ways. Can an ooze even hear?? Insects react based on instinct not loyalty, undead generally just don't care, etc.
4. There are also environmental issues that can help. Thick stone walls muffle sound. Rivers or waterfalls can make hearing downright impossible, sounds in cave systems seem to come from any direction.
5. Traps separate dungeon inhabitants. Bugbear A hears the goblins down the corridor getting killed and he might care but he knows a deadly trap separates his room from theirs. He is not coming to help.
With a little thought it is easy to put enough reality in to make things seem reasonable enough for even those players who are sticklers for that sort of thing.
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I had a GM once purposely keep telling us at intersections and archways how thick the walls were (10' Thick). We just thought it was b/cause a couple dungeons before we'd chiseled through a wall and lived through the cave in. That was until we saw the moppet.
We murdered a bunch of goblins and began looting the bodies. We'd noticed that the bodies of previous foes were disappearing, so we snuck into a stairwell and waited for our pursuers. Suddenly the wall opened at floor level, and out came a Tiny construct, resembling the ropy features of a muppet, with a mop in it's hands. This was followed by several small oozes.
While the oozes consumed the bodies the moppet cleaned the blood and equipment, pushing that through secret slots in the floor. It did the same thing with the few bones and inedible bits; the whole thing took about a minute. By the time the moppet disappeared back into the wall the hall was pristine.
So the walls were super thick to allow a cavity inside them to house these janitors. On lower levels we found a pit (one of many it turned out) where more moppets store the bits of armor, clothing, bone chips etc and re-work them into saleable gear. Finally they provided them to a handful of wizard-merchants scattered through the dungeon who would then sell them to residents.
So, that's one option...
That is awesome. It is not just a dungeon ecosystem it is a dungeon economy! You have to pay for those new guardians somehow!
Think about it, the dungeon could be selling exotic furs, candles made from monster fat (eeww), ivory or bone perhaps carved, rare components, etc.
That is brilliant.
Exactly the kind of thing a high-ish level neutral wizard would set up in his off-time :D
[Edit]: "Moppet"? hahahahahaha
I tend to spend countless hours when designing a dungeon figuring out how the inhabitants survive and to make matters worse, most dungeons are really just repurposed from previous structures so each room, section, area has to be designed with its original purpose in mind and then I figure out how the new inhabitants are using it.
but for me this is one of the best parts of being the DM, I am able to write stories within stories that my players may never know or care about but they are there all the same.
MY HERO! I have always easily created 10 x the content my players will ever see simply for the love of the process. My world is emmensely more detailed and colorful than any player will ever know, but it allows me to run it as a Real World and not just a movie plot. Well said!
Fully agree. Right now I'm working on a custom pantheon of gods, each of which has at least 2 pages of background and elaboration.
I know the PCs will only look at the domains and the favored weapons but still... it's as much for myself as it'll be for the campaign.
Might also fully detail the cosmology I've had spinning around my head for the last few years.
I absolutely HATE the way my old gm would make dungeons. He would have huge monsters in rooms with only 5' doors. Enemies would either hear us from hundreds of feet away while sneaking, BUT the ones in the room right next to us didn't AFTER we fought those other ones. BUT THE WORST IN MY OPINION WERE HIS TRAPS...horribly deadly, usually save or die OR no save and suck, through the middle of the ONLY hall way with no way to bypass. Tell me, HOW do the goblins put all those medium sized rocks in the 20' ceiling, do they keep getting dc 20 glyph of hold person, why does EVERY goblin have a 22 dex and 16 strength ant second level, It's very odd that this cave is so well lit, where did they all get masterwork strength 3 longbows...ect...
I put a lot of effort into making the dungeon just as much a living entity as the monsters inside. Animals go out to hunt at certain times, intelligent creatures post guard and have a patrol or two, "intelligent creatures" (Goblins, trolls, other creatures I hesitate to call intelligent) have a chances of shirking their duties and napping. My player actually use my meticulousness to their advantage, what they call "count the beds". In residences there is one bed per creature, in dungeons there is about 1 per two intelligent, in fortresses it's usually 1:3.
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Y'know what I never see in dungeon dressing? Decorations.
I'm not talking about carpet or drapes, but think about it; Goblins in Golarion are somewhat superstitious little buggers. Do they ever adhere to the superstitions that RL people have for centuries about their homes?
"You come to a door. At the lintel of the archway is a strip of cold iron with a tongue nailed to it. A roughly gouged scrape in the threshold is filled with oil."
Fighter (to rogue): is it a trap?
Wizard: No... (rolls Knowledge: Local); this is a goblin lair.
Fighter: What the WHAT now?
Wizard: Goblins use cheap oil in the door (which may or may not be lit on fire) to ward off evil spirits; the tongue & the iron is a ward against faeries....
Seriously; if a monster has lived in a dank little hole for a decade and taken the time to carve out "rough-hewn" chambers or lay in flagstone over the earthen tunnel floor or whatever, why the HECK wouldn't they have some chachkis thrown around?
Another thought: Cantrips. If You're, say, a kobold sorcerer and you've taken the time to venerate Ballathunda the Blue Dragon Mistress and all with a lair of efficient slaves, what do you do w/all your free time? You're light-sensitive, so no everburning torches, but what about Prestidigitations galore to make your own scent be the dominant stench? How about some Shock traps laid out, just to handle the obnoxious cave crickets? Maybe even perpetual Ghost Sounds of Balathunda's mighty roar?
I don't know, just thinking out loud I guess...
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Seriously; if a monster has lived in a dank little hole for a decade and taken the time to carve out "rough-hewn" chambers or lay in flagstone over the earthen tunnel floor or whatever, why the HECK wouldn't they have some chachkis thrown around?
Another thought: Cantrips. If You're, say, a kobold sorcerer and you've taken the time to venerate Ballathunda the Blue Dragon Mistress and all with a lair of efficient slaves, what do you do w/all your free time? You're light-sensitive, so no everburning torches, but what about Prestidigitations galore to make your own scent be the dominant stench? How about some Shock traps laid out, just to handle the obnoxious cave crickets? Maybe even perpetual Ghost Sounds of Balathunda's mighty roar?
That reminds me of a lich in some 1st edition module who had cast sixty or so magic mouth spells around his lair, just so that the entire place detected as magical. (This being 1st edition, he just lived in an alcove in the middle of a dungeon, with about as much reason to be there as a patch of green slime. He was practically a wandering encounter...)
Some sort of cantrips that create minor wards, able to inflict only 1d3 or 1d4 energy damage, and affecting one item, a 5 ft. square on the ground, could be neat, allowing a group of kobolds to create a 'safe path' through their warrens, and trap other squares, making it difficult for anyone who doesn't know the pattern to pursue them as they fling missiles and retreat. (Energy Resistance 5 will utterly bypass their awesome defense, 'though...) A clerical version of the same cantrip might do untyped damage, but only trigger on those of a certain alignment type.
Prestidigitation (or 'wondrous items' with prestidigitation level effects) would likely go a long way to jazzing up a place. 'This room smells of sandalwood incense, but there isn't any present...' 'Every stone surface of the walls is covered with luminescent arcane graffiti, that sheds light dimmer even than candlelight.' 'A half-dozen small stones float in a circular pattern around a candle. If disturbed, they clatter to the tabletop, whatever magic suspended them broken.' 'The tapestry depicts a knight hunting down a black wolf, and as your torch illuminates it, the thread unravels and re-stitches itself with lightning speed, so that the wolf appears to leap at the knight, only to be impaled upon his spear. It then resets, and the wolf is once again crouching, with the knight approaching. The scene does not repeat unless you re-enter the room, or extinguish your torch and relight it, revealing the tapestry again.'
@ S-bomb: that sounds awesome! I started another thread about 0-level shenannigans such as this. I have seen you toss around some other 0-level stuff before; I hope I can get your attention there too.
But back on track, that's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about. So, let's say you're a LE male kobold sorcerer 6. That's a mere CR 4 challenge, so he could EASILLY represent the big bad in a level 1 dungeon.
Now, take this kobold and put him into a dungeon he's now lived i for about a year. During that time you've overseen the creation of a few chambers, you've dispatched teams and you've organized trapsmiths. But for the past few months you've had some downtime; your traps are in place and functioning, you've got eyes on the pesky humans nearby and your larder is stocked for winter.
So... now what. You walk around your lair and realize its a utilitarian hovel. You're a KOBOLD; second only to your patron dragons! There's no reason for such common accommodations.
Between you and underlings you've got some skilled crafters and Item Creation feats. You decide to "magic up" the joint as follows:
The "Great Hall" type area needs a way to get pesky adventurers where you need them to be for the trap in the ceiling to hit them. Using Craft Wondrous Item you lay down a Prestidigitation of a dimly glowing blue circle of arcane symbols in a 10' radius below the trap; conveniently this is the center of the chamber.
In another chamber you craft tiny figurines of your draconic mistress. For added flair you toss in Prestidigitation on each so that they hover and their eyes flare blue like the lightning she breathes. Finally you tack on a pair of Ghost Sound traps, one on either side of the hall, so that if any of these are taken or messed with the traps ROAR like your mistress!
Blacklight effects on tapestries for fun; the wafting smell of carrion to distract animals and vermin; message effects to provide the sound of your whispering for passersby.