Post by DMAnarchistBis on May 2, 2017 13:43:39 GMT
Greetings from Canada!
I'm hoping all you DMs with your DMnastically toned muscles can help me figure out some dungeon inspiration. I'll post what I have and see what y'all think. When we last broke off our campaign my players were huddled in narrow mountain pass during a huge thunderstorm. They're up there looking for a group of town mercenary guards to get some information from them. The plan is to have a landslide chase them out of hiding and down the pass. It will catch up with them just as they see the other group get partially buried by a second landslide. I've got a sequence set up where they're going to be fighting their way across a wide ledge trying not to get swept off the cliff by the sliding land while also trying to rescue the group of guards.
When the dust settles there will be some guard casualties and also a large cave opening revealed by the landslide. The guards will need to go back to town to regroup but ask the PCs to investigate the cave just to make sure there aren't any imminent threats as these mountains are known to have all kinds of nasty stuff in them.
The cave will be fairly short but will end up against a man made stone wall that's cracked and ready to fall down. When the players bust through there will be a large rush of air from behind them as the pressure equalizes between the room beyond and the cave. They have now discovered the long lost Castle Grey.
Castle Grey was a medium sized keep that was buried long ago by ash from a near by volcanic eruption (think Pompeii) The castle remained mostly intact and the inhabitants survived but couldn't escape. Most of them partied like it was the end of the world but one inhabitant made a plan for survival. The castle wizard went around and secretly collected hair, fingernails etc from all of the castle's inhabitants and then used them to cast a spell that would put them all to sleep (think magical cryogenics) thinking that people would be attempting to dig them out and should arrive in a few months time. The condition for the spell being lifted was light and fresh air returning to the castle.
500 years pass and nobody came until the avalanche opened up the cave and allowed access to the castle once more. The problem is that the spell put the bodies of the residents to sleep it did nothing to put their minds to sleep. For 500 years they have all been stuck in their bodies, alone with their thoughts and nightmares and it's driven most of them completely mad.
When the players arrive it will take some time for the thawing process to occur so there will be a few rooms of really lifelike statues in various states of party etc but I will also work in things like (out of the corner of your eye you could swear the statue blinked)
And now we come to what I need help with. I feel like I've painted myself into a corner in terms of actually making the castle and interesting place to explore. Because it was a normal functional castle when it essentially became frozen in time it doesn't make sense for me to place traps everywhere. Because the wizard froze the inhabitants (and the spell has a cost) I can't see him wasting energy on animals. So encounter wise I'm basically left with mostly crazy commoner battles (I was thinking they'd just overwhelm with numbers and try to drag PCs down and eat them) and maybe a few guards and things thrown in.
I do have 4 specific encounters in mind. A flooded room where a stream poured in because of the landslide opening up holes. The castles priest who is still sane and can explain whats going on. The Earl of Castle Grey who has gauntlets of ogre power (random treasure table roll) and will be a mini boss. And the wizard who has had a long time to think about his spell and realized rather than linking each of the inhabitants life force to a gem and slowly releasing it back into them to sustain them over a long period of time could instead use that life force to increase his own life span and power. He'll be working on that when the players find him and during the battle he'll basically be ignoring them and working on his ritual and each time he is able to finish the ritual with a token from an inhabitant he'll gain a level so it will be a race to get around his defences (or destroy his soul gem thing) before he gets impossible to kill.
Anyway to make a very long long story short. Can I get some help with making the encounters throughout the castle more interesting. Either monster ideas, or ways to make the environment more interesting. Anything that comes to mind that at the very least might give me something to work with and inspire me.
Thanks so much!
I'm hoping all you DMs with your DMnastically toned muscles can help me figure out some dungeon inspiration. I'll post what I have and see what y'all think. When we last broke off our campaign my players were huddled in narrow mountain pass during a huge thunderstorm. They're up there looking for a group of town mercenary guards to get some information from them. The plan is to have a landslide chase them out of hiding and down the pass. It will catch up with them just as they see the other group get partially buried by a second landslide. I've got a sequence set up where they're going to be fighting their way across a wide ledge trying not to get swept off the cliff by the sliding land while also trying to rescue the group of guards.
When the dust settles there will be some guard casualties and also a large cave opening revealed by the landslide. The guards will need to go back to town to regroup but ask the PCs to investigate the cave just to make sure there aren't any imminent threats as these mountains are known to have all kinds of nasty stuff in them.
The cave will be fairly short but will end up against a man made stone wall that's cracked and ready to fall down. When the players bust through there will be a large rush of air from behind them as the pressure equalizes between the room beyond and the cave. They have now discovered the long lost Castle Grey.
Castle Grey was a medium sized keep that was buried long ago by ash from a near by volcanic eruption (think Pompeii) The castle remained mostly intact and the inhabitants survived but couldn't escape. Most of them partied like it was the end of the world but one inhabitant made a plan for survival. The castle wizard went around and secretly collected hair, fingernails etc from all of the castle's inhabitants and then used them to cast a spell that would put them all to sleep (think magical cryogenics) thinking that people would be attempting to dig them out and should arrive in a few months time. The condition for the spell being lifted was light and fresh air returning to the castle.
500 years pass and nobody came until the avalanche opened up the cave and allowed access to the castle once more. The problem is that the spell put the bodies of the residents to sleep it did nothing to put their minds to sleep. For 500 years they have all been stuck in their bodies, alone with their thoughts and nightmares and it's driven most of them completely mad.
When the players arrive it will take some time for the thawing process to occur so there will be a few rooms of really lifelike statues in various states of party etc but I will also work in things like (out of the corner of your eye you could swear the statue blinked)
And now we come to what I need help with. I feel like I've painted myself into a corner in terms of actually making the castle and interesting place to explore. Because it was a normal functional castle when it essentially became frozen in time it doesn't make sense for me to place traps everywhere. Because the wizard froze the inhabitants (and the spell has a cost) I can't see him wasting energy on animals. So encounter wise I'm basically left with mostly crazy commoner battles (I was thinking they'd just overwhelm with numbers and try to drag PCs down and eat them) and maybe a few guards and things thrown in.
I do have 4 specific encounters in mind. A flooded room where a stream poured in because of the landslide opening up holes. The castles priest who is still sane and can explain whats going on. The Earl of Castle Grey who has gauntlets of ogre power (random treasure table roll) and will be a mini boss. And the wizard who has had a long time to think about his spell and realized rather than linking each of the inhabitants life force to a gem and slowly releasing it back into them to sustain them over a long period of time could instead use that life force to increase his own life span and power. He'll be working on that when the players find him and during the battle he'll basically be ignoring them and working on his ritual and each time he is able to finish the ritual with a token from an inhabitant he'll gain a level so it will be a race to get around his defences (or destroy his soul gem thing) before he gets impossible to kill.
Anyway to make a very long long story short. Can I get some help with making the encounters throughout the castle more interesting. Either monster ideas, or ways to make the environment more interesting. Anything that comes to mind that at the very least might give me something to work with and inspire me.
Thanks so much!