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I'm working on an encounter for my home game and am looking for advice. In it they are exploring the abandoned remains of an ancient technological ruin. Most recently inhabited by a migrating tribe of Morlocks, those clambering creatures have recently abandoned this site after their leader and many of their strongest warriors and robotic allies were killed by my PCs after stumbling into their temple a small distance away from their homes. Since then the area has been largely abandoned and my PCs are likely to finally return to that temple and explore this area. Currently my biggest problem though is figuring out some more interesting things to fill this area with.
Right now I have an albino cave shrimp from B5 as one of the most dangerous new tenants in the area, sifting through the remains for any morsels it can find along with whatever falls from the hovels or other holes in the high canyon walls above. Right now I'm looking for something to go inside the "treasure room" that the Morlocks have made of one of the old rooms. It has a tech door that's been sealed shut and the primary ingress has so far been through the roof. I'm thinking I want to put something in there as well, either an immortal sentry of some kind that was left over from the dungeons original function or some kind of creature that has come up to the space and either gotten stuck or made its lair there. The space isn't that large so I'm not looking for anything bigger than large but beyond that so long as it's CR is between 4-9, makes sense to have leaving alone, and doesn't have a climb speed I'm good. Interested to hear what people come up with.
Also if it helps I'm using the cavernous side of the tech dungeon flip map if the helps people visualize the space. This creature would be in the set of rooms on the opposite side of the map from the violet orb.
You could put a robot as the guardian, a warden robot would be perfect fit. Quite tough enemy, especially if the group does not have any admantine weapons.
What excatly would it be left to guard?
I suggest a computer terminal that might or might not be intact. What secrets does it hold?
Or maybe a tech lab that savvy PC's could use to craft tech items or even robots of their own?
The Technology Guide has lots of useful stuff. Check it out on PRD.
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You could put a robot as the guardian, a warden robot would be perfect fit. Quite tough enemy, especially if the group does not have any admantine weapons.
What excatly would it be left to guard?
I suggest a computer terminal that might or might not be intact. What secrets does it hold?
Or maybe a tech lab that savvy PC's could use to craft tech items or even robots of their own?
The Technology Guide has lots of useful stuff. Check it out on PRD.
The Warden is pretty awesome but considering the confines, the difficulty of getting back out of this space, and the powers he has I might want something a little lower on the CR curve. Otherwise I might have them drop in, hit that aura, and get mopped up. But he's still really f***ing cool and thematic and it's tough saying no to him lol.
As for your other questions of what this creature is guarding the pitch goes something like this. The room that this creature occupies is one of the few rooms that has remained largely intact, all of its walls and security doors either remaining intact or having been replaced with the sheer rock walls of the cavern itself. This has left the only real way into the space as a large hole in the domed roof of the room which can only be accessed by scaling the rock walls above and then descending down into the space. This wasn't really an issue for the previous occupants and the Morlocks to their credit thought of the room as a sacred place of worship. From here the Morlocks would clamber down from above to the lip of the roof, offer prayers, and then dump offerings into the room below. Believing it to be sacred they never actually traversed into the space themselves. The space is meant to be reminiscent of the mayan Cenotes, where the morlocks cast objects and sometimes creatures into this "tech well" to appease the "spirits of steel" their faith worships. With that in mind the creature in their could be living as their would likely be enough organic material dropped into the room to sustain something.
Hope that helps people get more ideas.
If the warden robot is too powerful, you could rule that it's long period of standing sentry has damaged it, reducing function and hit points, though it would mean some work to make it a reasonable challenge.
Failing that, How about some creature in a stasis chamber - one that is programmed to awake when sensors detect an intruder? That increases your options and I can see it being quite flavorful to describe the chamber opening.
Ooh, I like the idea of stasis chamber. Maybe multiple ones. You should distract the players with something, so they don't pounce the guardians as they emerge. Maybe an incorporeal undead, allip or wraith or a ghost. He is the spirit of an original inhabitant. The sensors do not recognize an incorporeal being and it might be the cause of the morlocks worship. Why he has not left the place, well undead like ghosts are bound to a place or item. Also they are usually completely insane.
When the party is fighting the undead spirit the sensors detect life forms and the chambers start opening. Done well it could be hella scary :D Describe the guardians as having metallic masks/helmets and dreadlocks ;-) They could be kasathas or androids or just weird humans from another planet.
If you are against the statis chamber idea and the warden is too tough for the party maybe a few gearsman robots?