Calling all DM's !! I am having a horrible bout of writers block and need some creative ideas!
I am running a weekend long game with my best friends and decided to use the map from the 4e Tomb of horrors the Garden of Graves. I like the concept of an ancient elvin graveyard.
Set-up: The players need to enter this long hidden grave yard to find an ancient tomb that will explain how they can destroy this artifact they recently found out about.
I have NO IDEA what in the world to place in the graveyard, I really don't want to do undead, I would like to try and go with something different. Its for 4 10th level characters ...
any ideas would be awesomely awesome! we are playing in Pathfinder rules set
Thanks in advance !!!
I like Mr. Pit's idea, but I'd suggest Caryatid Columns instead. They make excellent architectural accents, like at the corners of a mausoleum, and can be difficult to deal with.
Also, being an elven graveyard, how about some evil fey? Like some malicious pixies, with a few sorceress levels? Maybe led by a Nymph turned evil and luxuriating in negative energy. If you want to be really mean, maybe she's a Vampiric Nymph. I know you were thinking to avoid undead, but that would be an interesting encounter. (Thinking about it, I might use that sometime...)
You can mix in stone golems with carayatid columns for a more even CR spread as well.
Having good or nature spirits defending the graveyard could also work. No reason vengeful guardians need to be undead!
Clerics. Make them clerics of a god of death, only maybe have it that they've fought off undead enough times that they're slightly unhinged and more than a little trigger happy. So, when they see the PCs, they confuse the PCs for undead and attack.
PSYCHOPOMPS! Mess around with the dead and BAM, angel of death on your trail! Perhaps they guard the sealed tomb of some monstrous undead or perhaps the artifact the PCs carry has the soul of some ancient evil that the Psychopomps fear releasing, perhaps something with the power to eat souls or raise the dead? The Psychopomp angle could help give the PCs an option beyond just 'kill whatever's inside'. Maybe they can be reasoned with somehow.
Some details about the artifact could help in determining these sorts of things to. If you would like me to elaborate on any of this, just PM me, because I rarely check back on non-campaign threads.
there's always giant spiders...
For the graveyard you could add shadow demons, or Nabasu.
Graverobbers are another option. Perhaps from a shadowy group seeking the same knowledge for their own ends.
I would also include some mimics disguised as coffins and maybe some gargoyles.
You also can't go wrong with a good foggy area with some vampyric mist hidden within
the "item" that they need to get to destroy the artifact is in fact a fully sapient being.
Traps, outsider guardians, and a few riddles.
A garden, still beautiful though seeming untended, in that the plants just seem to have not needed tending. This is the home of a nymph, wintering/summering/(whatever season it is, she always spends that season here, out of affection for one of the long-dead elves, to remember her lost friend). Whatever undeads lurk, they will not enter or pursue into the garden.
Perhaps the caryatids ward the garden from the undead, and from casual vandals? (Don't cut the roses!) Similar caryatids might mark the tomb of the nymph's friend, where a passage might be found to some other point of interest? Of course, the caryatids might bar passage. (Better bring a rose!)
On the coffin of the friend, is a rose, either still perfect and white, or long withered and black. GM decides. The nymph, when told of it (and she will ask), weeps, either joyfully or with a broken heart. If the latter, perhaps ordering her garden and caryatids to attack! (How old-school are you? LOL)
Evil fey, plant creatures, crayatid colums, unhinged Pharasmin clerics, mimics, twitchy psychopomps, Shadows, demons, and vampiric mists??
Not much else I can add... Except...
Traps. Lots and lots of traps. Exploding runes, pitfalls, glyphs. My personal favorite is a pit-fall into an auto-locking coffin.
Edit: Thought I should expand on my coffin trap, which I've dubbed the "Grave Trap".
It's a 6 foot deep pit, leading to a nice, deep coffin. A very very luxurious coffin. When someone falls in it, they get a reflex save at the bottom to avoid landing flat. If they do (or if their CMD is passed by the Coffin's attack), the coffin slams shut, and locks. At the start of the next round, dirt starts filling the grave, at a rate of 1 foot per round. It will continue to do so until there is 6 feet of dirt in the grave, thus filling it, after which the enchantment fades.
Now, there ARE several ways to get out of this. One, have a good enough CMD vs the Grapple of the lid slamming shut on you. Two, pick the lock and get out, or break out. Three, teleport out. 4, your buddies can dig you out and open the coffin fast enough (though they may get trapped themselves). 5, you can hold your breath while your buddies get you out.
I have both annihilated characters with this, and been made proud that others have simply been inconvenienced for it...
Mad sextons- with silver shovels of doom!
Talking gravestones.
Clerics of a death deity.
you should have like one zombie/skeleton, but the party comes up to see him slain by a group of grave robbers.
WOW!!!! I never really thought I would get all this awesome ideas !! You guys rock!
The idea of fey is a cool one since I haven't ever really used good aligned fey. Perhaps an Evil Treant which has become corrupted (somehow). Keep the ideas coming they are awesome !!!
Thank you
I love DrDeth's talking gravestone idea!
Along with caryatid columns and other defenses, talking gravestones could make excellent Haunts. A possible example:
"Tu Fui Ego Eris" (A roman grave inscription): literally, "I was you, you will be me..."
You could make an Elven translation for it and if someone deciphers it, they make a Will save. If they fail, they have a horrifying vision of being buried alive. When they come to, they suffer claustrophobia for the next 3 days.
Or
"Tempus Edax Rerum": "Time, Eater of All Things"
Once translated, Will save is made. Failure makes an Elven undead skull appear on the ground and begin gnawing on the PC's ankle. It does d3 temporary damage(hallucinatory). None of the other PC's see it and believe the PC is crazy.
That kind of stuff.
'Rasputin must die!' (Reign of Winter) has
Do you like your players and do you what to see them cry?
Build a hierarch of undead with a shadow dragon at the top. Shadow dragon, wraith with cleric levels, allips, victims of the wraith's cruelty, and shadows.
If you are feeling nasty a few ghouls with ranger/rogue levels lead by a barbarian ghast. I prefer the classics with class levels it's more work on the front end but you're less likely to forget important abilities.
And remember incorporeal creature with blind fighting can attack from under the ground and thought walls. Invisible attacks plus no strike back because of cover. Shadows are fun for bring down powerful characters. At tenth level the party should be able to undo any ability damage.
Good luck.
Check out some Haunts.