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Two words: Gas spore.
Two words: Gas spore.
Three Words: What Are Those?
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The idea is to make the players think it's a beholder, and when the PCs attack it, have it explode in their faces.
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Our party rogue insisted on searching the privy in one AP. ** spoiler omitted ** He found something alright. Tetanus. The party ranger found the actual treasure.
No, you're doing it wrong. The privy is supposed to be a Mimic!
I think I already posted that in this thread...
Mannequins stalking the party.
2) A deck of many things. No player can resist it.I have personally resolved that, unless it's a one-shot game, if I ever encounter a Deck of Many Things, I will destroy it or otherwise remove it from the group, no matter my character's motivations or knowledge.
*shudder* The deck of many things has caused two of my campaigns to end in unexpected and deeply unsatisfying TPKs. I have vowed never to let my PCs find one of these.
Mannequins stalking the party.
Automata Mannequins stalking the party. those things are creepy, lifelike and can be mistaken for zombies pretty easily.
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Mannequins stalking the party.
And speaking of mannequins, I acutally ran this encounter last night...
(The encounter was inspired by a similar encounter from Shards of Sin, plus my running across this image on the iterwebz...) [might possibly be construed as NSFW by the extremely prudish]
In an otherwise empty room of the dungeon they're exploring, they found a battered brass mannequin lying on the floor in the corner. It was female in form, and had fully articulated joints. They saw wires and cables running through openings in the brass body plates of the mannequin, near the joints. They also noticed that it had a keyhole in its side, about 12 inches below its right armpit. Not knowing what it was, and realizing that it weighed about 250 lbs, they decided to leave it there.
In a later encounter, they found a strange crystal key. Returning to the mannequin, they found that the key fit, and they could turn it, as if winding the mainspring of a clock. What ensued was a 90-minute discussion of whether or not to wind up the automaton-- half the players assumed it would attack and advised against winding it; and the other half just really wanted to see what it would do, for good or ill.
After they turned it as far as it would go and removed the key, they heard a distinct ticking from the mannequin. Its eyes glowed with a faint blue light, and it shuddered to life, standing up. Seeing the person with the key, it then spoke words in a strange language using a halting, mechanical-souding, but distinctly female voice.
One of the PCs (not the one holding the key) spoke the language and translated: "Greetings, master. I apologize for letting myself wind down. What task shall I perform?"
The mannequin is a variant intelligent clockwork servant that serves whoever last wound it up.
Mannequins stalking the party.Automata Mannequins stalking the party. those things are creepy, lifelike and can be mistaken for zombies pretty easily.
Oh I don't think they are creepy. I played a variant of a warforged in Eberron which was basically a living dressing mannequin. Built for a rich and powerful lady in Cyre before the Mourning (a version without any capability for built in armor - but capable of wearing clothing or armor made for a medium sized woman). I had a lot of fun with her. And in a pinch I could always take jobs in my downtime as a dress shop mannequin.
Have the players wake up one morning before going into a dungeon. When the camp to rest, have the day repeat itself. The pcs are the only ones who notice and believe what's going on,
The thing is, this isn t a dream. Something in the dungeon is resetting time to that last time any intruders into its territory/home woke up. In order to stop it, they have to battle exhaustion and depleting resources(it's resetting time, not how many charges the wands have or refilling potions drank.).
*shudder* The deck of many things has caused two of my campaigns to end in unexpected and deeply unsatisfying TPKs. I have vowed never to let my PCs find one of these.2) A deck of many things. No player can resist it.I have personally resolved that, unless it's a one-shot game, if I ever encounter a Deck of Many Things, I will destroy it or otherwise remove it from the group, no matter my character's motivations or knowledge.
Me neither. But I liked the idea so I modified one so that there are no murder-death-kill cards.
NOTHING.
have a large room that is genuinely, 100% pointless.
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....and have them roll perception checks on it.
you could also, of course, make a room filled with illusory air.
NOTHING.
have a large room that is genuinely, 100% pointless.
Ah, so they're in the World's Largest Dungeon? You're encouraged fill the empty rooms though when you GM it.
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Ah, so they're in the World's Largest Dungeon? You're encouraged fill the empty rooms though when you GM it.NOTHING.
have a large room that is genuinely, 100% pointless.
heh.
no, I just meant a pointless room in an otherwise trap-filled dungeon."I search the room with a 30."
*the GM makes it clear he's checking notes*
"you don't find any traps."
see what happens.
Mannequins stalking the party.Automata Mannequins stalking the party. those things are creepy, lifelike and can be mistaken for zombies pretty easily.Oh I don't think they are creepy. I played a variant of a warforged in Eberron which was basically a living dressing mannequin. Built for a rich and powerful lady in Cyre before the Mourning (a version without any capability for built in armor - but capable of wearing clothing or armor made for a medium sized woman). I had a lot of fun with her. And in a pinch I could always take jobs in my downtime as a dress shop mannequin.
if you see an Automata and were familiar with their general NSFW purpose, it would be very creepy. lets just say your Average Creepy Otaku who doesn't cuddle a body pillow and is lucky to have thousands of dollars in spare funds to finance on their credit card does gross things to an Automata.
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An idea to play with their minds:
In the middle of a jungle or a desert (a setting for an exotic tribe who worships wolves), a huge temple. The outer walls are covered in statues or pictures of feral wolves, their snouts red with blood (for extra creepyness, make them drip actual blood).
As you venture inward, the wolves stand up, and appear more and more anthropomorfic: it seems to represent humanity evolving from wolves (knowledge local DC 25 will confirm the tribe holds the wolves in high regard, and belives them to be the origin of the human species). However, the faces all show expresions of mixed anger and pain.
On the center of the innermost chamber, two huge statues of a naked man and woman, both with neutral expresions on their faces, hold the McGuffin on their hands. No traps whatsoever and no, the statues are not golems.
CATCH: the treasure is, of course, cursed. Anyone who touches it becomes a lycantrope, is inmediately transformed to hybrid form, and magicaly compelled to attack anyone and everyone. As the party flees away from their previous companion, the order reverses, and they see the temple realy depicts the transformation of humanity into savage wolves.
(pro-tip: time everything so the change happens at midnigh, and have a pack of feral wolves ambush the PCs on their way out)
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I've always wanted to put something along the lines of this inside a dungeon...
The first page confirms this and gives a very disturbing golem idea...
You can't unsee, so be careful.
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The first page confirms this and gives a very disturbing golem idea...
You can't unsee, so be careful.
Oh no, it's a Curiosity Trap - the higher your Will save, the harder it is to resist! That wasn't deliberate, was it?
Here's something else you could do with that....
At the end of a long stretch of dungeon that appears to have been abandoned for millennia, a room full of (in keeping with recent themes around here) what appear to be staggeringly lifelike mannequins in ancient royal finery - making a tough Knowledge (History) or Knowledge (Nobility) check might reveal the garb is something along the lines of "I didn't think humanoid life on our world had even been around in its present form this long" ancient. The room is still - there should be so much dust in the air that it's dangerous to breathe (it was starting to get that way on your way here), but you know what? It's just about spotless. Some party members may even find themselves standing around in a daze for a few seconds, just to match the...statues?
There's precious little else in the room, save for a little table on which sits a little silver bell, a dainty bell-ringing implement, and a little scroll that reads something like the following:
Well, here you are! You're curious about the bell, aren't you? Anyone would be. It looks like you have two options: Ring the bell and see what happens (could be anything, right? Or perhaps nothing), OR play it safe, go back where you came from empty-handed, and be buggered until the end of your days wondering what this bell does.
IF, after all this, you decide to ring the little bell, it *dings*. It's a little, perfectly normal *ding,* but it seems to fill the whole room after ages of perfect silence. Then nothing happens. For a second.
Then one of the most impressive-looking "statues" stirs. They greet you graciously, acknowledge you as the ones who awakened them, and begin interrogating you about the issues of the day. They then accompany you the rest of the way through the dungeon on whatever errand you'd actually come here for. It turns out this motherf%!#er's got serious powers, and are pretty darned helpful for the rest of the dungeon crawl. When it's all over, they wander away on their own at some point, free in this brave new world...
...congratulations, you've just awakened the Secret BBEG!
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IF, after all this, you decide to ring the little bell, it *dings*. It's a little, perfectly normal *ding,* but it seems to fill the whole room after ages of perfect silence. Then nothing happens. For a second.
Then one of the most impressive-looking "statues" stirs. They greet you graciously, acknowledge you as the ones who awakened them, and begin interrogating you about the issues of the day. They then accompany you the rest of the way through the dungeon on whatever errand you'd actually come here for. It turns out this m&%&*#*&*+%&'s got serious powers, and are pretty darned helpful for the rest of the dungeon crawl. When it's all over, they wander away on their own at some point, free in this brave new world...
...congratulations, you've just awakened the Secret BBEG!
Thank you. I now know how I'm going to bring back Belimarius in my expanded NWN Runelords campaign.
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Our party rogue insisted on searching the privy in one AP. ** spoiler omitted ** He found something alright. Tetanus. The party ranger found the actual treasure.No, you're doing it wrong. The privy is supposed to be a Mimic!
I think I already posted that in this thread...
Blame James Jacobs. He wrote Burnt Offerings.
A portal to another dungeon.
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Thank you. I now know how I'm going to bring back Belimarius in my expanded NWN Runelords campaign.
Don't thank me, thank C. S. Lewis! :)
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I'm also a fan of the 'good skills' trap.
Admittedly, its a little dirty.
Brier patching.
You create an item, location, etc, that requires the heroes to pass a certain challenge or requirement to access it.
Such as high reflex saves, multiple will saves, puzzles, etc. And then at the core, you have..
Misinformation.
You can make an entire campaign out of this. Although use it sparringly as its kind of a spectacular DM mindscrew.
Let's say a villain requires a certain activity..
He hides it in a secret chamber. The secret chamber is defended by puzzles regarding the faith he's opposed to, requires bypassing alignment locks (keyed in for his enemy's alignment types), and passing difficult will saves, or events that require cooperation.
Now he makes a small splash, indicates he already has something, and spreads misinformation that the solution lies in the aforementioned secret chamber.
It gets even more horrible if good aligned folks twig on to the fact the heroes are being misled and try to stop them. Or alternatively, the heroes are the guys stopping the wouldbe heroes from attempting to destroy the bad guy by the very methods he needs to achieve victory.
Leads to fun stuff like
Hero: Don't you understand, the McGuffin shall only empower the Dark Lord of Fire Ants!
Hero 2: I saw the words myself, written on the stone tablet of St. Panthrax the Gullible, and translated by the highest college! The McGuffin must be buried in the earth!
Hero: It will only awaken the ants!
Hero 2: NO, it shall stop them!!
DLoFA: Muahahahaha.
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Don't thank me, thank C. S. Lewis! :)
Thank you. I now know how I'm going to bring back Belimarius in my expanded NWN Runelords campaign.
I Thought I recognized that scene! Magician's Nephew where they wake the
I Thought I recognized that scene! Magician's Nephew where they wake the ** spoiler omitted **Don't thank me, thank C. S. Lewis! :)
Thank you. I now know how I'm going to bring back Belimarius in my expanded NWN Runelords campaign.
Ah so that's what it is. i've only read it a couple of times, unlike lion witch and wardrobe.
A talking scarred doll that does voodoo magic and keeps coming back.
Ah so that's what it is. i've only read it a couple of times, unlike lion witch and wardrobe.I Thought I recognized that scene! Magician's Nephew where they wake the ** spoiler omitted **Don't thank me, thank C. S. Lewis! :)
Thank you. I now know how I'm going to bring back Belimarius in my expanded NWN Runelords campaign.
I lost count after the 12th time or so.
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One thing I think would be odd: just weird proportions. Like chairs with short legs & strangely long backs. Uncomfortable door handles made for alien hands. I guess this is all in the GMs description, but I think it could be interesting nonetheless.
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Themselves, they meet their duplicates from some magic mirror.
Or them, but total opposite, save for appearance.
Example: nice fire sorcerer > evil cold sorcerer
Lawful stupid paladin > Chaotic SMART anti-paladin.
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A trapped chest. It has a hugely complicated lock, and failing the disable device breaks the lockpicks. However, once opened it reveals a chest containing one set of unbreakable thieves' tools, a dagger with a x3 crit that automatically confirms crits, and a +3 Undead Bane Shortsword.
Kudos if your players get the reference.
I lost count after the 12th time or so.Ah so that's what it is. i've only read it a couple of times, unlike lion witch and wardrobe.I Thought I recognized that scene! Magician's Nephew where they wake the ** spoiler omitted **Don't thank me, thank C. S. Lewis! :)
Thank you. I now know how I'm going to bring back Belimarius in my expanded NWN Runelords campaign.
I have not read that far into Lewis's series, so the reference was lost on me. Good to know though!
A trapped chest. It has a hugely complicated lock, and failing the disable device breaks the lockpicks. However, once opened it reveals a chest containing one set of unbreakable thieves' tools, a dagger with a x3 crit that automatically confirms crits, and a +3 Undead Bane Shortsword.
Kudos if your players get the reference.
Augh it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember >_<
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a Gruffalo
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a room full of giant annoying preachy vegetables, armed with weapons, but it doesn't matter because they don't have any arms! stupid broccoli :-)
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Augh it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember >_<
I'll take pity on you: The Elder Scrolls.
I was trying for a Skyrim reference.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A large crab doing its best to corner the market on slightly used weapons, armours and generic adventurer stuff.
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A large crab doing its best to corner the market on slightly used weapons, armours and generic adventurer stuff.An intelligent butter ooze named Whizzo selling competing wares across the way - somehow, it's hard to tell the difference between the two of them.
This is a good selection I need to bring some help in for this decision. *summons water and fire elementals*
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Girlscouts bearing cookies.
Maybe they rhyme about discounts when buying larger quantities.
"Yee adventurer, that sword won't do you any good,
but i'll bet these chocolate sprinkled would."
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A series of talking monuments strategically placed around the dungeon that chronicle its original establishment as one individual's dream society, and its tragic progressive descent into the monster-ridden crypt it is today.
Bonus points: In the nearby towns are a chain of potion shops staffed by female gnomes in pink dresses.
It is strongly recommended that you do no approach them when they are gathering ingredients in the wild. The massive armored barbarians don't take kindly to it.
Augh it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember >_<
I'll take pity on you: The Elder Scrolls.
I was trying for a Skyrim reference.
Oh nevermind then, not something I've played.
Ah, well, that's the thing, you see, you don't read forward, you read back. It's the prequel.I have not read that far into Lewis's series, so the reference was lost on me. Good to know though!
I was speaking forward as in publishing order, less than in-story chronological =)
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I was speaking forward as in publishing order, less than in-story chronological =)
The Magician's Nephew is one of my personal favorites because it explains so much of what went on in Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
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The Magician's Nephew is one of my personal favorites because it explains so much of what went on in Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I was speaking forward as in publishing order, less than in-story chronological =)
Yes it does, and the