In my current game my players are running a thieves guild, competing with other thieves guilds, all that jazz. For the last month they've been doing very stealthy, sneaky, political and underhanded stuff. And they will be going back into it for another few levels, but to break it up, everybody has shown interest (and I think it's a generally good idea) to do some classic "Go in, kill some shit, take its stuff", with the specific motivation of funding their next plot.
An ancient city lost to monstrous creatures with a fabled relic in it, a cavern system inhabited by bestial humanoids who have raided the surrounding area, whatever. As long as I can justify them hearing about the shiny bits at the end, and give the something cool to fight along the way.
I currently have 5-6 (depending on week) players of level 4 & 5. I can tune things up or down as needed, but I need some ideas. I don't want to do the standard orcs, ogres and trolls. The only idea I've had so far is something involving a dwarven kingdom that fell ages ago to....something. I'm just drawing a blank. Please give me ideas for anything interesting, that I can use to keep my players killing and looting for a good level or two, something that is, at least a bit memorable.
Edited because words are hard.
The obvious one would be a dragon, actually. The question is if your characters will bite when they know there's a dragon involved. (Mine won't. They're dracofobic)
My players have been trained pretty well to know that if there is a dragon fight in my game, it's not some toddler dragon who is just a dire lizard with a breath weapon. It's a level 15+ fight that will rip through your consumables, possibly kill you, but if by some miracle of luck or planning you manage to kill it, you'll tip the wealth by level tables. Not by much, and I tend to lowball loot a bit before that to keep it balanced, but a dragon's horde had better feel like you are going scrooge mcduck on that pile.
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I tend to use dragons that are at least large, so the weakest true dragon they could encounter would be a green dragon with a CR of 8. Here's a twist: The green dragon treats the entire forest as his territory, so you could turn the forest into a dungeon. (The first level anyway.) You can make good use of his Pass Without Trace and Woodland Stride abilities here.
Trolling through the CR5-7 creatures and avoiding the cliches (Dragons, undead and Fiends) suggests the following possibilities for a BBEG:
Green Hag Coven. Add Boggards and undead for minions.
Xill.
Aboleth. Can use Skum and captured humanoids as mooks.
Half Fiend Minotaur (Pair).
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Hey HowFortuitous,
Here are few ideas connected pretty close with city dungeons:
- How about a Ghost Ship showing up near their town? Local guards and militia are starting to search a way to remove the threat together with Mage's Guild which gives the city bad reputation and prevents merchant's from trading, however, letting the city handle it means passing on a valuable opportunity... (it's kind of predictable story, but you can shape enemies to be pretty much anything you want; from undead, to magical beasts luring their victims and ship full of constructs which travels through time)
- A local wizard supposedly vanished in some catastrophe and City Militia is currently investigating the case and tower of a wizard is currently off-limits, but some sneaky thieves might find their way to sneak by and check the tower before Milita does it... (it might include magical beats, warding traps and possibly some unique hazards created in explosions)
- A single more richer family of commoners recently was found dead. Supposedly they were exploring the ways to expand their house while they stumbled on some old passage. Several days later, they were found dead in their beds mysteriously... (it might include undead and some unique monsters)
That's about few city connected stories.
Malag
Hey HowFortuitous,
Here are few ideas connected pretty close with city dungeons:
- How about a Ghost Ship showing up near their town? Local guards and militia are starting to search a way to remove the threat together with Mage's Guild which gives the city bad reputation and prevents merchant's from trading, however, letting the city handle it means passing on a valuable opportunity... (it's kind of predictable story, but you can shape enemies to be pretty much anything you want; from undead, to magical beasts luring their victims and ship full of constructs which travels through time)
- A local wizard supposedly vanished in some catastrophe and City Militia is currently investigating the case and tower of a wizard is currently off-limits, but some sneaky thieves might find their way to sneak by and check the tower before Milita does it... (it might include magical beats, warding traps and possibly some unique hazards created in explosions)
- A single more richer family of commoners recently was found dead. Supposedly they were exploring the ways to expand their house while they stumbled on some old passage. Several days later, they were found dead in their beds mysteriously... (it might include undead and some unique monsters)
That's about few city connected stories.
Malag
I suggested the wizard in the catacomb idea to the players and the general sentiment was "Get us the f##% out of the city" which is fair, they haven't really left it since the game started.
Trolling through the CR5-7 creatures and avoiding the cliches (Dragons, undead and Fiends) suggests the following possibilities for a BBEG:
Green Hag Coven. Add Boggards and undead for minions.
Xill.
Aboleth. Can use Skum and captured humanoids as mooks.
Half Fiend Minotaur (Pair).
I have plans for Aboleths later in my campaign, so I don't want to use them. Hags might work though.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Lost Dwarven Kingdom eh?
Fallen long ago to evil forces not know to the survivors, the dwarves sealed away their great city, vowing to return one day to reclaim not just the city, but the great treasure in a vault in the middle of the city. That was nearly a thousand years ago and only a few people still know of the vault within. A map was recently discovered, explaining how to access the city and where to find the vault.
The problem, the way in is sealed by multiple means, there is something evil lurking in the now dark city, and the vault is still guarded by traps and locks.
Now I know this sounds like another rogue caper, but you can throw in a twist. The evil already set off all the traps, broke into the vault, and turned the vault into the central chamber of their lair. Most of the treasure is now long gone, given away to minions that carted it off to the Underdark, but enough survives to make the trip worth it. The party just needs to fight their way out with it.
I would set it up like one of the normal jobs with an expectation that there would still need to be lots of trap and lock disabling, not to mention stealth, that previous missions had. However, as they access the tunnels and the city they should start picking up clues that things are not right. As they get closer and closer to the vault they start finding the traps are already tripped and once they reach the vault it will be wide open, the door torn off of the hinges. At this point it should be obvious that they could be in trouble. Let them find the appropriate amount of gold, but as soon as they have looted the big bad shows up and they have the run and fight their way out of the city and tunnels. Wave after wave of minions should ambush them, but you should also stress that the longer individual combats take the more intense they are going to be.
You could have anything be the evil. Drow, derro, a dragon, morlocks. You can find a good list of possible candidates here.
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I suggested the wizard in the catacomb idea to the players and the general sentiment was "Get us the f$*! out of the city" which is fair, they haven't really left it since the game started.
To be a bit honest, I am unsure why they are bored with the city, but none of those stories which I suggested have to remain around the city itself. It seems however that your players really wish to be somewhere else, so it's essentially pointless where the adventure starts from, it's important where it ends.
What I am trying to say is that there might be some portal or more difficult problem at hand which will lead the players away from city.
Example wise; the formentioned Ghost Ship story might turn into twist, when players solve the mystery and loot the ship but suddenly ship warps and transfers into another place on map or plane for that matter.
Teach your players to love the city, because all the loot that they can find is null and void when you can't buy anything for it.
Malag
How about the dwarves encountered some of these guys. They weren't hostile, just alien. There was some kind of natural hazard or disaster that killed all the dwarves but not-quite-all of the crystal guys, so the PCs have to use a diplomatic solution (or judicious use of speak with dead / dominate monster, it's all good) to find out what happened and avoid the same fate.
How come it's always dwarves that end up unleashing an ancient evil that overwhelms them and leaves their city in ruins? Makes them seem pretty incompetent. Let elves or orcs or gnomes have a turn.
I have plans for Aboleths later in my campaign, so I don't want to use them. Hags might work though.
I liked the hags, too. That's why I mentioned them first.
One of the hags poses as a damsel in distress and lures the pcs to the rest of the coven by talking about the "discovery" that her uncle made before he disappeared. She knows nothing about the "discovery" other than it was to make them rich and it's general location (in a fetid swamp).
perhaps pointers can be used (he followed an acient road into the swamp). Perhaps the location where the hags are based is actually the site of some other evil, which has begun to waken.
The only idea I've had so far is something involving a dwarven kingdom that fell ages ago to....
Banking collapse. Murder of Dwarven Treasurer Helgolt and his family was unsolved until...
Because it's Dwarf Fortress...and losing is fun! :)How about the dwarves encountered...
How come it's always dwarves that end up unleashing an ancient evil that overwhelms them and leaves their city in ruins? Makes them seem pretty incompetent. Let elves or orcs or gnomes have a turn.
That makes sense.
Maybe dwarves occasionally become afflicted by a kind of contagious madness that leads to obsessive building and engineering projects, and so many of them end up as victims to their lava-filled steam-powered hubris.
I just ran a dwarf fortress game last week and it went very well. Dwarf ruins are nice because they offer a lot of versatility.
It gives plenty of opportunity for muscle-bound characters to free up stuck doors, rogues to disable device on traps or even old rusty mechanical devices. Make the ruins old enough and they will certainly appeal to knowledge oriented characters and of course add lots of stuff to let utility casters shine (towers with open centers they can fly up, flooded halls they can water breathe in, etc).
You could of course, easily tie it to their thieves guild story line by stating that "The competing thieves guild is employing the help of (insert monster race here), who are residing in the dwarven ruins east of town."
My number one piece of advice for monsters in a dungeon crawl is "sensible variety." Find a monster you want to inhabit the ruins and then expand on it.
For example, you could populate the dungeon with troglodytes, most would of course be cannon fodder, but there could also be an elite guard, a king and of course, a high priest or other caster-type royal advisor. Along with those troglodytes would come monitor lizards and any other underground nasties that make sense. Gray oozes come to mind as well as all manner of slimes and typical dungeon dangers.
If you are looking for something that will give the players a good variety of challenge, I'd suggest something like duergar. Sentient evil dwarves would have all manner of traps and are smart enough to have a wide range of other monsters under their employ. They could include a small band of mites whose sole purpose is training and maintaining a force of giant slugs, you could also throw in a black pudding or two for good measure. It would also make for great roleplaying if the PCs came across dwarven ruins which had been defaced by the dwarf-hating duergar.
Of course there are tons of unique approaches if you decide to go an aquatic route. Flood the ruins and inhabit them with skum and all sorts of other nasties. Heck, using skum could be a bit of foreshadowing to the aboleths you want to introduce later.