DM-Nastics #101: Traps, Tricks, and Treasure

Duergar and other (evil) dwarves have filled a series of caves full of booby traps and alarm systems (mechanical and magical). These dwarves are rumored to possess dragon eggs and know how to hatch them.

Perhaps sent to retrieve a stolen egg for a (good) dragon, or rumors that (evil) dwarves are raising dragons to ride and forge stronger metals. Perhaps the PC's come across one of these new dragonforged dwarven weapons. Their lair is large enough to host a maze of traps and dead ends to intruders and their deeper chambers are large enough for young adult dragons to fly around casually. These dwarves are also master monster egg-nabbers and have raised a variety of other monsters to defend their keep aside from dragons.


Retrieve the dragon-eggs of Korthternesj the Arsenic dragon that have been stolen. These dwarves are rumored to be the clan of the dwarf that had poisoned her!


Tying this back to the rivalry between Korthternesj and Vanithessia from dungeonmasterblock.freeforums.net/thread/1562/dm-nastics-dragons-draconic-boogaloo.
The dwarves are stealing eggs from all dragon types that they can, but primarily they have Manganese dragon eggs stolen from Vanithessia and arsenic dragon eggs stolen from Korthternesj as well as a smattering of all other metallic and chromatic types.



Perhaps after successfully navigating this dungeon and trying to get out, the players are confronted with Vanithessia as she somehow smashed in the cave ceiling or roof of the structure, allowing a way out of the mega-dungeon but they must slay the mad Manganese dragon to get free. They could choose to run and hide from Vanithessia but that means going back into the maze/dungeon and trying to find your way out the original entrance.

1. Think about a single encounter, an entire level, a monster, some piece of amazing treasure.

There is a group of small drider like automaton which traverse the dungeon via hidden, obscured, and small passageways. Their endless job is to traverse the dungeon, catalog everything they see, retrieve any "foreign" objects brought into the dungeon, and deposit them inside the security vault. These automaton will also return any items or treasures fallen adventurers may have taken from other parts of the dungeon as well. Returning them to their "proper locations. They are not violent inherently and will wait for creatures to sleep or be killed by the dangers of the vault to confiscate their "foreign" objects.
They are called by other denizens of the dungeon the Catalogers and have real way to attack. However if aggressively impeded, captured, or attacked and they have no way to escape, they will self-destruct. Obliterating themselves, and causing major harm and/or death to beings close by.

2. Think of how a group of players would learn of the thing you create to toss into the dungeon.

Sometimes, if no one has ventured into the Dungeon for a long while, some of the Catalogers will grow bored and venture a short ways outside the dungeon to find new things to bring into the dungeon. While traversing the dungeon, you probably will find little in the way of loot from the bodies of fallen adventurers, as their bodies would be picked clean by the Catalogers.


3. What quest could be tied to the two pieces above?

With time, the stories of the immense dungeon have faded to stuff of folklore and rumor. Few people are aware of its location anymore and adventurers and dungeon delvers into its depths have become scarce. Because of this, the Catalogers have been venturing further and further out to find treasures. Stealing goods from passing caravans and travelers in the night. They have even gotten so bold as to travel to a local town and steal things from peoples houses in the night.
Perhaps you are tasked by the locals of this town to find out what is going on with this sudden influx of theft. Or Maybe you are hired to find out where a lost shipment has gone. Either way, following one of these mechanical creatures back to its lair sure is to provide one hell of an adventure.

So, sorry for jumping on so late, and I don't know if this is the most recent one but here goes. I've just started recently listening and I'm fairly obsessed. I've stolen a lot of ideas from here for my own campaign, sorry. Thought I'd finally throw my hat in the ring to maybe make it even. Sorry it got long, didn't mean it to.

1. Think about a single encounter, an entire level, a monster, some piece of amazing treasure.
a. I came up with this idea as a joke but now that I think about it, it could be a fun idea to implement. What I was thinking of was that this Mega Dungeon could have separate levels and you could go up the stair into an entirely new challenge, but each floor has a theme (if you will). It works off of the idea of the original Mario games in the fact that there are multiple levels and each has a theme associated with it and there are sub-levels under that. For example, in Super Mario World, there are different “worlds” going from Yoshi’s world to the star world and special world, in each “world” there are different challenges that change like in Vanilla Dome you must worry about ghosts and in Chocolate island you have to worry about dinosaurs (if I’m wrong on that I am sorry, I am too young to actually know, this just accentuates my point). Each “world” has five or six levels. So my idea is to substitute “worlds” for a level of this dungeon and the “levels” of video game play for rooms in your dungeon. So for each set of stairs comes a new set of challenges. One level can have all elemental creatures. One level can have the party wading through water. One level can have only mind puzzles and games. The idea is that the players finally learn how to deal with whatever they are faced with, whether it be a certain type of monster, a type of terrain, or type of puzzle or challenge and then get them to switch up course when they climb the stairs to the next level. (BTW your players will most likely learn to hate stairs by the end of that. ) {wow that got long}
2. Think of how a group of players would learn of the thing you create to toss into the dungeon.
a. If I were to go off my original idea I think the characters should wake up in the lowest part of the dungeon and work their way up.
3. What quest could be tied to the pieces above?
a. I think it might be a fun thing to try that the Players create their character sheets, but the DM creates backstories for each of them. So the characters wake up with amnesia, and as they go through the DM takes opportunities to say, “you see a crude painting of a dragon on the wall left long ago and you remember the times your mother gave you the brush and let you paint on her works to make them ‘better’.” Or other such things. These can either be just random tidbits to have an interesting twist or these can be tiny hints into what the players must do to overcome the challenges ahead. So, the overarching plot would be for A. the players to remember who they are and B. figure out why they were teleported into this dungeon to figure out. There might be a dragon stuck in the mouth of the cave and the only way to help them get out is to help him from behind. Or maybe the Dungeon is in a labyrinth and the elders of the town asked the players to retrieve something from the center. A god (insert whatever one you want here) who is helping them on their quest puts them in the center of the labyrinth so they only need to fight their way out instead of having to go in and come back out. Unfortunately, in sending them their they lose a part of their minds trying to comprehend it and to save them from going insane she erases all of their memories. (just an idea I guess).

A 3-way tie for the name guys really? xD That is kinda funny.

Well, I have to leave it open now, haha. It is getting to the point where if I can get Mike Mearls back on, he might have to be the tie breaker, haha. So many good ideas in here, would love to dump them all into a single dungeon.

"Let me be perfectly clear, the dwarves of the adamant cavern were scared of nothing. They stole the gold and eggs of dragons, created self sustaining terrariums for their choice pets, and were able to craft such things out of ore that the gods were envious.

So it struck me as a bit odd when I found this surveyor's map with a section crossed out and 'Abandoned' written next to it in red.

According to his journal; the surveyor was following an emerald vein through granite when he heard clicking in the darkness.

Per standard procedure, he summoned security. These guys wore enchanted breastplates and wielded adamantium blades. So they didn't have a lot to fear, and were ready to exterminate the clicking thing.

The surveyor didn't have to wait long before the screams began. He gazed as far as his dark vision could stretch, and the last thing he saw of the guards was a naked dwarf crawling just within sight before screaming and then shriveling like the bagged beverages that come with his daily rations.

He then blew the shaft and abandoned the emerald prospects. Deeming whatever it was too dangerous a threat for emeralds."

----------------------------------


1. Think about a single encounter, an entire level, a monster, some piece of amazing treasure.

The monster is a 'Dire Rust Monster' that can eat magic, adamantium, and even drain the iron out of your blood.

They have a far reaching echolocation (the clicking) and can smell anything made of ore within 200ft.

They do have culinary preferences and will devour everything in this order if at all possible.

Magical metal items > adamantium/mithril > steel and alloys > gold/silver > ores> blood (iron)


(I know it's strong, but I hope the players will overthink the foreshadowing journal entry. If too strong for you allow items a 'death save' or simply ignore the magic or addy eating)

2. Think of how a group of players would learn of the thing you create to toss into the dungeon.

Seveyor map and or journals. Prospect logs with emerald veins marked as untapped

3. What quest could be tied to the two pieces above?

A) The amount of emeralds would be substantial and would help restart the dying economy of a neighboring village.

B) a dwarf lost his grandfather to the beast in the vein. He died as one of the guards, and now his grandson wants answers.

4. How does it tie to something else that has been posted? If at all.

I dig DM Exitium's dwarves. This is a side haunt to the dungeon's overall feel.

5. Quite literally anything, this is again the place to go crazy with your ideas, and hopefully we can get Mike Mearls back on to talk about them!

The emeralds are Dire Rust Monster eggs. Technically more valuable than emeralds, but if you don't realize what they are...

1. There is a level that is filled of orcs who believe that a crystal in the middle of the dungeon is a material form of a god called "Dorlack". The orcs haven't seen the outside world for a long time, and don't really know of anyone else but themselves and enemies at the fringes of their level in the dungeon. The orcs found themselves in the caverns when they were pushed by a different orc tribe and almost slaughtered: this orc tribe went into the dungeon for refuge. When the orcs found the crystal, they were dumb enough to think that the crystal was some form of a god, and started sacrificing to it. When sacrificed to the crystal, the people disappear: no blood, just a disappearance. And that leads onto my next answer.

4. (Tying back to Rorrick's post) The crystal is another part of the space ship that fell away into another place in the dungeon, and the crystal somehow teleports the sacrificed adventurers into the space ship, though the dumb orcs do not know this. Also, if the orcs and primitive apes ever meet each other, we could assume they'd probably attack each other because of their different beliefs... And tying back to lasersniper's post, the orcs are very afraid of the catalogers, and will often bend under their will, and often also sacrifice items they find to the catalogers freely. Tying back to the last post by blakeryan the orcs are a special type of orc that have evolved to breath underwater, and the whole level is underwater and is blakeryan's level. Finally, tying back to the post before that by dmcaleb, the orcs have captured one of the Dire Rust Monsters, and are now trying to use it to protect themselves against the catalogers.

2 (and sort of 3). The players would learn about the orcs by finding a stray crippled dark elf slave to the orcs (and she is very upset about this turn of events since the orcs should be her slaves, not the opposite! This is what she thinks, her name is Velna), and she asks the party to destroy the whole lot of the orcs, and'll lead the party to the orcs' level. The players could also maybe figure out about the orcs by some people in the space ship that were sacrificed by the orcs instead of the apes, and talk about the orcs and the crystal.

5. The crystal is about three miles across and three miles deep, and is in a wide and tall cavern. The crystal also sort of makes its own, mini-dungeon inside with with undead of aliens that used to be in the space ship, but are now zombies and dead. A sci-fi version of a wizard that was on the space ship became a sci-fi version of a lich and is animating the dead. The lich is also making the sacrificed people to the crystal, go to the rest of the space ship. The lich doesn't know how to get out of the crystal though, but is working on it. The crystal has some magical barrier that is in the space ship, and was protecting the lich when she was alive and in the space ship. She was of a race that couldn't be out in space, even if in an enclosed area in space, so they needed to keep them in the diamond. But they didn't give the lich and the undead whilst they were alive the key to get out of the diamond.

I hope this is good enough and I hope I didn't mess anything up!