Ancient Bard College Dungeon Ideas

[Chrion]

I'm running my first lengthy campaign of my own creation right now and I want to run my players through their first dungeon. They will be around 3rd level. I want the theme of the dungeon to be an ancient abandoned Bard's college and I'm looking for cool ideas for interesting rooms, monsters, and encounters relating to this theme to throw at them. As I said this is my first time running an extended campaign of my own design and I've never put a dungeon together before, so any help would be appreciated!

[VRMH]

We'll probably need more info: why was this college abandoned, and why are your adventurers going there now?

As for encounters: a few Goblins, who sneak in just to burn the sheet music? The place should have a great acoustic, so you can hear them singing from quite a way's away.

[roguerouge]

Have the final encounter be a haunt compelling them to put on the musical that destroyed the academy! If they have a success, then they put the haunted college to rest; if they fail they face a level-appropriate undead bard. Perhaps a zombie lord, an allip, or hanged man?

I'd probably do a skill challenge designed to get a sense of what went well and what didn't with the play. Disguise checks for selecting costumes from the costume shop. The onstage PCs would have Perform: Act, Dance, Comedy, and Sing checks. Orchestra would be handled by the haunt, unless there's a PC with Perform: Keyboard, Percussion, Wind, or String skills. Skills for a crew PC would be things like Climb and Disable Device for operating stage equipment, Handle Animal for "exit: pursued by bear". Performance combat and fly checks for combat choreography, if that's in there.

[roguerouge]

You could also use a Crypt Thing for an interesting set of encounters. Their teleport ability could teleport each PC to a music classroom with a haunt, where they would have to succeed in a bardic challenge (music, oratory, knowledge checks, performance combat, etc.). Then, they have to reunite and take out the monster before the night ends!

[Pizza Lord]

You should decide where and why the college is where it's at. Is there something special beneath it or why was it was built there?

Next, you need to lay it out believably. It needs to have rooms that make sense (even if that sense isn't obvious at first). If there was threat or danger, obviously guard rooms and gates at the entrance. Then maybe a great hall or courtyard for guests to gather and hear the performances. Then main or outbuilding (or offshoots if your college is underground) that lead to dormitories for new students and staff quarters for servants, cooks, janitors, etc. Storerooms. kitchens, and pantries would need to be next (and a privy or two). Maybe a few workshops for making, maintaining, and repairing instruments.

Then you need some study rooms, probably small quiet spaces for thinking. A common room or two for socializing. A bathing area. Then a few library rooms, one holding music or poems or whatever, the other holding books and tomes (bards need to study history and other stories to base their new poems and tales on sometimes). Then you may have a few more rooms for performance when the main courtyard wouldn't suffice: theaters for plays, auditoriums, etc. After that, private rooms for the staff and advanced students. Maybe a few vaults, where great works or treasures or funds for the college were kept.

For special rooms, likely they are based on acoustics. For instance, one room may take advantage of the bard spell sculpt sound. It could be a permanent effect that deadens the sound of speech in the room and all talking is reduced to a whisper. It was meant to keep people from interrupting the performance with talking, as such it would make verbal casting impossible since that requires speaking with a strong voice (or you can have the spell change speech into something else, like a quiet hum or something that wouldn't interrupt a performance). Since it affects all speech, the room would have likely been used for visual displays or musical performances (not singing, or at least, not lyrical singing). Or you could have a specific spot on the stage where the effect doesn't apply and a person can speak normally. That's where you have an enemy spellcaster standing prepared to defend the room while the PCs have to use nonverbal spells or other abilities to defeat him.