So, my group is currently playing through "Island of Empty Eyes" and are level 9. Due to some roleplaying, they have come to the belief that there is a small islet two miles to the southeast that houses a cyclops oracle which may not be hostile to them. They have become very interested in this oracle and plan to go visit.
I am going to have her be a cyclops oracle from Inner Sea Monster Codex. She will have been an opponent of Ishtoreth who has been exiled to the islet when he took power. I am going to have her in the northern temple chamber of the Ancient Dungeon flip mat. I am trying to think of some encounters to populate it. Here is what I have so far.
On the beach there will be an eyeless cyclops statue which will turn out to be a tiberolith from Bestiary 4. It is there to keep anyone from leaving the island and to attack all non-cyclops.
At the entrance to the dungeon, two ngogas from Lost Kingdoms will be loitering around having been trained by a cyclops ranger to guard the dungeon.
In the western corridors, a crypt for past cyclops oracles will feature one gholdako from Bestiary 4 which will guard the crypt from tomb raiders. Any non-cyclops who enter will be attacked.
In the northern corridor, the cyclops oracle will be seated. She is not overtly hostile unless the PCs are or they are openly carrying goods looted from the crypts. She will talk about how Ishtoreth is leading the tribe into deeper depravity and has exiled her because she disagreed with his methods. She will promise that if the PCs spare as many cyclops as possible when attacking the village, she will do what she can to lead the survivors towards peace with the PCs after Ishtoreth is defeated.
In the eastern corridors, I would like the room with three colored pools to be scrying pools for the oracle. What would be a cool encounter for this?
Also, are there any good traps or other encounters you'd recommend for something like this?
One possibility is to make the Scrying Pools only truly useful to someone who is a cyclops. Example: Visions seen by non-cyclops are hostile and can actively hurt the PCs. This would allow you to either seed future story threads ("visions of things to come") or allow them to scry upon the village itself but have to face versions of what they see. This serves a dual purpose of making the scrying pools useful as both a story tool and allowing the PCs to see what they'll be facing soon.
If you take this approach though be certain to have it such that anyone who "dies" during an encounter with the pool is just knocked unconscious and suffers a negative level or two for a few days while they recover from the experience. It allows you to go whole hog on the danger without causing an accidental TPK on a side-quest.
That is a great idea!