Tower Encounter Inspiration needed

[SmiloDan]

Hi!

This is for my steampunk/swords & sorcery Podwick/Xenique 5th Edition campaign, so if you're playing in it, please don't peek!

spoiler:

So, I plan on the PCs assaulting a tall, hollow tower to rescue someone. It's basically a giant stairwell with a hollow center, 30 feet in diameter, with 10 foot wide stairs winding along the walls.

I have ideas for encounters for the ground floor, the first half of the tower, and the top of the tower, but I need an idea for the top half of the interior of the tower.

The party is 5th level, and has a Halfling Tempest cleric, tiefling warlock, human gunslinging swashbuckler rogue, wood elf outlander monk, lighting and thunder wizard/fighter, and shadow sorcerer/cleric. So lots of ranged attacks, no real tanks, some skirmishing melee types.

The ground floor will have a swamp monster and a trap, the lower half will have some skirmishing kenku death-cult monks, and the top half will have a coven summoning a shadow demon or vrock.

There is deep water at the bottom of the tower, so it won't TPK if they're pushed off the stairs.

I'm thinking a flying or at least acrobatic urban fey monstrosity might work, but what??? Or a trap of some kind, like a complex trap that will encourage teamwork and cooperation to solve.

Thanks!

Thanks!

[SmiloDan]

spoiler:

Maybe an invisible stalker with the gust cantrip and/or proficiency in Athletics? It could also be used to carry the badguys over trapped or weakened staircases....

[SmiloDan]

spoiler:

Now I'm thinking about giving the Air Elemental's Whirlwind ability to an Invisible Stalker. It does exactly what I want: a small area effect that does some minor damage and moves PCs in a random direction, and possibly starting a chain reaction of fumbling and bumbling!

[*Thelith]

A big gap in the stairs...

Filled with a mimic that looks like stairs...

[SmiloDan]

*Thelith wrote:

A big gap in the stairs...

Filled with a mimic that looks like stairs...

Diabolical!

[*Thelith]

A caster of any kind who only prepares stone to mud and mud to stone...Casts stone to mud, waits for them to sink into the stairs and then uses mud to stone....

[*Thelith]

A short section where the stairs actually have a railing... Where it's just a railing and does nothing but makes them paranoid because they just fought a stair mimic.

Or it's. Trap where in order to go up the stairs you have to hold the railing the whole way or the stairs fall out from under you.

[SmiloDan]

spoiler:

There are a couple things I'm doing on a meta level in this campaign.

1. I'm making them paranoid about gargoyles. I keep including gargoyles as architectural features and dungeon dressings, but none of the kind that attack them.

2. I'm "picking" on one of my PCs by targeting him with tentacles that pull him into water. The "swamp monster" on the ground floor is an otyguh.

The ceiling of the tower is full of leaks, so it will be raining inside the interior of the tower. So it will drippy and slippery and creepy.

I'm thinking of having hammocks or pods dangling from beneath the staircases as treasure and resource drops. Also, something for the PCs to grab on to if they fall off the stairs.

[VIPfr33dom]

You could have the tower's stairs being an uphill circling slope, so angled the ground is considered difficult terrain, denying their dexterity bonus to AC. +2 DC for slippery. Perhaps there is a waterreservoir at the top which the enemies have access to, usable to flush down the party once they finaly hear the breeze of the sky just above.

Spamming ideas:
Rogues with readied action (may 5ft step as part of it), will make annoying adversaries. Cunning Trigger rogue talent, access to a round boulder...
Caltrops...
A permanent space dimensional chamber suddenly within it all cast by a wizard in the past. Enabling room for a place of your imagination requiring teamwork.

A lever requiring to be held active by a biological hand or specific race, holding open a portculis 100ft up ahead, with a lever 70ft further on behind some trapped area.

The adversaries can have access to an oil barrel.. allowing setting the whole masontower's circle slope on fire. Choking hazard for the party but they have access to arrow sliths, temporarily aiding breathing, perhaps there is a lock on wodden/steel windows. (wood is cheap, how often do they really put the whole tower on fire? xD, also less suspicious than coal covered dust on everything)

Because it is raining, the fire dies out x rounds later. The fire spreads downwards perhaps at 100ft / round, the party can't outrun that in difficult terrain. Perhaps there is a part adventurous and cunning way for the party to take out the fire quicker.

Have a ladder to first floor, to made the party take small falling damage if they are flushed down/ in a panic. Have the bottom floor's entrance door sealed behind them when they enter, requiring lockpicking or brute force to get past or the hidden exit down into the water or underwater chamber connected to the water surrounding the tower. With the waterbeast within.
A used wand of cure light wounds with 4-8 charges remaining lies at the bottom of the water in the closed grip of a corpse.

Enjoy

[GM MacShack]

VIPfr33dom wrote:

Perhaps there is a waterreservoir at the top which the enemies have access to, usable to flush down the party once they finaly hear the breeze of the sky just above.

I really like that one. They hear the sound of rushing water and have maybe a round (depending on how close to the top they are) to get out of the way.

[SmiloDan]

Great ideas! :-D