The Story so far: My players have been adventuring on a continent lorded over by an all powerful demigod king where magic users are few and far between, and those few that are born are quickly captured and put into the kings service. After discovering that one member of the party was an undercover magic user the king ordered some of his troops to destroy a shack that they aquired as payment for a previous job and begin pursuing them. With no civilized lands uncontrolled by the king, the party ventured into the lands to the North wherein Dwarves and Orcs are in a perpetual battle with one another. Through their friend, a historian and scholar, the party learns of a dwarven artifact with the power to transport them to the world's other continent on which magic is common and no large organized nations exist. The dwarves tell the party that this artifact lies deep within mines long abandoned and that in order to find it they must brave the deeps. The party successfully found the entrance to said mines and defeated an orc encampment in the first level and are nop beginning their descent.
What the dungeon needs:
- First off a name (no dwarven lore yet established so anything dwarven sounding will do)
- An initial segment to impress upon the party the depths of the mines and to create a tense atmosphere. I was thinking perhaps some type of skill challenge to make their way down with no encounters, but constant notes to individual players that they could swear they saw soemthing moving behind them.
- A small story to tell or mystery to solve; the mines are supposed to be maze-like so if the party gets lost I would like for the dungeon to have some interesting aspects for them to explore aside from "let's get out of here". preferably it would elude to the presence of the next bullet point.
- A final event encounter to obtain the artifact. A powerful boss for them to focus, minions for the ranger to deal with, and something for them to have to accomplish at the same time. Initially I had planned for them to hold off a (substantially nerfed) fire giant while the sorc charged the artifact from various powerful glyphs scattered about the chamber.
The Party: All four players in the party are level six and 2 of them have previous D&D experience before this campaign. All are good at using their characters but none are rule-obsessed or min-maxers.
-Ranger
-Rogue
-Fighter
-Sorcerer
Any Ideas or input is appreciated, in the mean time i'll doodle some dungeons on my graph paper :P
Edit: Spelling (forgot to proofread) :O
While man was in infancy, the Dwarves were already at their peak, their massive strongholds, mines and fortifications were spread out across the north. Their earthcraft was great and they delved deep into the world, hauling up cart after cart of the most precious and useful metals and gems. By the time of Khamos Lhaw, the riches of the earth were becoming increasingly harder to find. Dwarven clanholds had already begun to fight amongst each other for mineral rights and Orcs had begun to fill abandoned mines and strongholds. The Dwarflords of Khamos Lhaw had already mined deep into the earth and their ore veins were beginning to run dry. They turned to the great Dwarf Wizard Ammut Muvalkos for aid. Ammut created a powerful device that was to open up huge new veins of ore and wealth to the dwarves of Khamos Lhaw. They hid it under watch and guard, deep in the furthest reaches of their mines. The artifact dug through reality itself allowing the dwarves to mine other planes and gather rare ores and gems from across the multiverse (and conveniently enough, teleport people and things from one place to another). However, something went wrong. Perhaps the miners got too greedy or perhaps it was sheer bad luck, but the device unleashed an unspeakable evil upon the stronghold...
Impressing the depths
After an initial jaunt through the entry tunnels, the party reaches the expansive living quarters of Khamos Law. Massive structures of stone and towering statues loom over empty thoroughfares and narrow, canyon like channels. Give the players a lot of opportunities to make choices in the forward/left/right fashion. Do they go over towards the Temple of Moradrin to the left, take the stairs downward on the right, or continue on into what looks like an open square ahead. Some ideas are forgeworks, living quarters, some sort of waterworks, a woodworking factory, underground farms, massive bakeries and breweries and whatever good stuff you can throw at them. Just make it so they have to choose between a lot compelling places. However, they don't know that there is no wrong choice. They will probably try to use some sort of skill check in any well described area that they go to, and you let that be part of their challenge. If they succeed they find further steps downward as they go to leave the area, if they don't then they run into a dead or another passage towards a different choice. I would probably use traps in this sort of exploration mode, even though I understand wanting it be encounterless. The ultimate destination is the massive chasm that is the main mine shaft. After going down through all the layers of the stronghold they might be expecting to be near the artifact, but they are not. The shaft descends miles into the earth and has a 10 footwide staircase that spirals downward around it's outer edges, as well as huge derelict mining structures that once hauled tons of earth from this hole. This part wouldn't be a skill challenge, but I would make sure to have them need to stop for an extended rest once or twice and I'd ask them to make their perception checks and for their order on watch just to keep them on their toes. There will probably be other secondary shafts that branch off horizontally from the main shaft but I would have them be caved or lead back to the main shaft eventually.
The Final Battle
I don't really know what you are going for in terms of badguys but I think however that it would probably be cool to go with something a little more feral, a little more alien in approach. The dwarves may have opened up a portal into the nest of some sort of giant abberrant insectoid and it's progeny. The portal has remained open ever since due to several warp anchors that have begun to meld with the stone or are wrapped in ectoplasm from the alien brood. The players have to shut down the portal by dislodging, deactivating or destroying the warp anchors. There are probably some standard and minion creatures hanging out by the artifact initially, but the real threat isn't until the players actually start to engage in combat. As soon as the initial enemies are down, they see something large and mean moving out through the gate. Of course if they shut down the warp anchors right off the bat, the portal will take some time to close and the big nasty elite/solo and his minion buddies will make it through in time. Either way, they should have to fight the big nasty bug. Having non intelligent enemies will explain why the artifact is not being used, even though it has the ability to teleport people across continents. The alien insects would also have to climb a long ways to search for any prey and won't have expanded much into this foreign world. I don't have any suggestions for what the alien insects would be, but it shouldn't be too hard to re-skin existing monsters or even just make something up.
I hope this helps.
1. bizaris, dwarven outpost. Here in this dwarven castle conquered by a warforged army my party has to find the secret way into the mountains where they will blow up the mountain containing the portal to the warforged lands of structure.
2. drûmfall, abandoned dwarven mine. After their initial entry to the castle was blocked the party had to find another way into the castle, this is where the abandoned mine comes in. The fun part is that I've hidden a huge treasure behind a long way of traps (at some point in the mine there's a right and left path, left path is treasure and right path is castle.)
the mine simply starts with a very wide shaft going down 45 degrees, let one of the players accidentally drop a torch or sunrod and tell them very detailed how deep the light falls... also spider webs and traces of monsters (biiig footsteps) wil scare the crap out of my party.
I made the small story the treasure in the mine, the traps focussed on testing if the players are worty of the treasure ^^
at the end of the whole path from castle to mine to treasure to castle and in the mountains I have put the first clash with the BBEG, its a djinn wich wil chase them with an army in the next segment, they'll have to trick or escape the djinn with some opportunities I plan to provide.
feel free to use my plans and please update because your plans sure helped me to get mine straight
Gornonbald, the Mountain Forge
In the mountain's deep lies the crumbling ruin of Gornonbald, the Mountain Forge. Long since abandond by the deeplords of the dwarf kingdoms, for the horrors that occurred within that foresaken place have been forever stricken from record. Originally established as a mining colony, Gornonbald began to draw interest from the deeplords when it was discovered that the colony was right on top of a natural leyline, an natural intersect of magical energy. This intersect of the arcane and the mundane had infused the ore around Gornonbald with fantastical properties, as a result many dwarven smiths flocked to the growing colony to experiment with the ore and the colony prospered as a result. Soon Gornonbald became a major hub of smithing as the colony's reputation for excellent metallurgy grew as the smith's improved their craft with the arcane infused metal.
However something was stirring in the dark corridors of Gornonbald's mines, the intersect between the arcane and the material was more than a just a meer fount of magical energy. It was a hole in the very fabric of reality, and the recent activity of the Gornonbald miners had begun to draw the attention of entities dwelling on the other side of that hole. At first the people of Gornonbald began to experience strange nightmares, confusing symbols and unearthly images plagued their sleeping minds. Reports from the mines tell of whispers coming from the dark, pleading for someone to find and rescue them. As the nights' wore on the all pervasive dream symbols began to fascinate the smith caste and it is revealed that the mysterious symbols are in fact instructions for the creation of beings living metal. By this point most of Gornonbald had been driven quite mad and now worshipped the strange beings that spoke to them as the Voices in the Night. Following Voices instruction, the smiths of Gornonbald turned themselves into twisted beings of living metal, smelting their own flesh into a warped alloy of blood, bone, and metal.
A contingent of dwarven forces was sent to Gornonbald after word had not been heard in sometime. The soldiers were ambushed by the crazed colonists and most were hauled off to be used as 'materials' in the creation of the living metal. For the few soldiers that managed to escape the slaughter, they brought word back to the deeplords that Gornonbald had become a den for insanity and evil. A larger force was sent back to the Mountain Forge to have it answer for its crimes, but nothing was found at the colony save for the smoldering embers of Gornonbald's forges. While searching the colony for the missing colonists, rumors began to circulate amongst the soldires of hearing strange whispers in the dark, and bizzare dreams of cryptic symbols. Soon the same madness that consumed the citizens of Gornonbald befell the dwarven soldires. After this, the colony of Gornonbald was permantly sealed and all records of its existence have been stripped from dwarven memory.
Impressing the Party
Here you can introduce the party to Gornonbald by having them only hear of its reputation as a place to stay away from. While what ever they need down there may be vital to their mission, its not worth their lives. Have some of the dwarven soldires mention the ghost stories that surround place. Be sure to have these stories not be actual history of Gornonbald, but definetly inspired by it. An example could be that a smith there bargined with a devil for the ability to turn ordinary rock into gold, the devil eager to gain the smith's soul agreed. The smith used his craftsmanship to become very wealthy but was mindful that the devil would return one day and hatched a scheme. Pouring all of his skill into one final sculpture, he crafted his best piece of metal work in his life, an exact replica of himself. Wanting to fool the devil into taking the sculpture instead of himself, he dressed the sculpture in his clothes and dimmed the the lights in his house. When the devil came to collect the smith's soul it was fooled by the remarable likeness of the statue and mistook it for the smilth. When it realized it had been fooled it returned and slaughtered the town in its quest to find the smith. Of course tales like this will only further motivate the party to go down there.
Upon arriving the party will find the great barred doors of Gornonbald left slightly ajar, opened by previous looters unfourtunate enough to enter. Inside they will discover Gornonbald in all its wonder. Areas to focus on would be the central plaza, the site where the last army camped as it descended into madness, you might leave a journal here for the party to discover that charts the fate of both the soldires and the colony. Reveal this information in stages so as to slowly drum up the horror as the party realizes to late what they've really gotten themselves into. The forges are a must given what this place was. Have them be eerily still smoldering, as if eagerly awaiting for someone to start them up again. For extra creepiness have the strage ruins that cropped up in the journals cover the forges and the room in a chaotic sprawl of incoherent text. From there you can go into detail about the living quarters and other areas as you see fit. Lastly the party can approach the mines. Have the taint of the Voices be strong here, before it was subtle in the town; keeping the forges lit and affecting the towns peoples thoughts but here it is strong. Have the mines warped by their presence into bizarre patterns or even changing substance into something other than rock. This can also explain any traps you can think of, as the Voices are trying to stop the party from advancing onward to stop them.
You might also want to have the party start to experience the same dementia that gripped Gornonbald's previous inhabitants just for added horror. Have them start to see strange symbols floating in the air, hear strange whispers eminating from from the dark and the ever present feeling that they are being watched.
Final Battle
Once the party enteres the mine have them finally wittness the horror of what happened to the colonists and the army that came here. They've all been transformed into strange beings of metal and bone, minions of the otherworldly entities that whisper through the leyline. Here at the bottom of the Gornonbald mines they've been modifying a portal so that it can allow their terrible masters to come across the rift. You can have this final confrontation take place between just the party and the transformed colonists as they try and stop the Vioces from crossing over or allow for the Voices to cross over and have them be the 'boss' of the encounter.
Once vanquished or pushed back your party will have the portal infront of them that leads to the other continent.
Also, I'd steer clear of the 'dug too deep and woke something nasty up', because if any of your friends play D&D and haven't seen LotRs a dozen times something weird is happening.
You've got orcs set up in the initial levels of the tunnel... why not have them have done something ludicrous, mad, and different to secure the mine from the dwarves? Especially because (to me as a player) any tale of terrifying horrors that happens to have a bunch of pudsy orcs camping out in it suddenly got a lot less scary. Unless it's obviously their fault.
Other things I'd steer clear of include forcing any 1 member of the party to focus on a skill challenge while his buddies get to kick ass. If you want a 'you need to do X while fighting" it should be something all of them can do, or they only need to do occasionally.
Also... why does the ranger do minions? Isn't that a striker that ought to be wittling HP off the boss?
Anyhow, here's what I'd be apt to do. I'd also make this very much a one-way ticket, since it sounds like they've already decided to flee. If they want to come back it'll be harder, the sense of 'oh crap we're trapped' should make things a bit more... suspenseful.
The Mines of Kar Bannor
For ages the mines were a source of precious metals and glorious stones. Over the last century the flow decreased somewhat, but the more mundane minerals pulled from its depth helped replenish the armory. Still it was no longer as well gaurded as when it had been the center of Kar Bannor's treasury, and massive assault by the orcs caught the dwarves off gaurd. The orcs held and fortified the primary entrance rapidly, and the screams of the captured dwarves and strange lights pulsed through the caverns.
Within a week three small scouting parties had vanished after sneaking into ventilation shafts and secondary tunnels. The only recorded report from any attempt to breach the mines was short and hysterical: "The shadows moved and the torches went out! I could hear them screaming, i just ran. Ran so fast..."
The Descent
I'd go one of 2 ways with this, depends on what you want.
Fun and a bit wild: The party finds the mining carts used to pull ore from the deeps, and decides to ride a couple down into the depths. They end up noticed by orcs and a very goofy Indiana Jones-esque encounter on moving tram cars ensues. Fun but not too thematic.
Atmospheric and Creepy: The party moves on into the mines, and discovers an ancient, and rotting, elevator. The mechanisms are nearly fused with rust, but the actual shaft appears patent. As they descend into the dark they notice a series of Orcish glyphs [arcana: they seem to be wards against negative energy] burned into the shaft near the top. As they continue to drop deeper the temperature plunges rapidly, strange whistling sounds eminate from the cooridors, and sudden winds buffet the party. Whatever light source they're using seems to dwindle, and the shadows at its edge seem to close in, then rapidly disperse.
Skills: Thievery to reactivate the elevator. Failure breaks it and it's unusable, serious failure and it plummets down the shaft. (IF they're on the elevator the athletics are easier). They need to spelunk down, dungeoneering. Athletics or Acrobatics to descend: if on elevator can do collective athletics/strength.
Optional: When they actually reach the bottom of the shaft, there are 4 small effigies made of bone laid out carefully on the ground above the rotting remains of animals and orcs apparently thrown down the shaft. One with a bow, one with a dagger, one with sword and shield, and one with whatever the Sorc carries. Obviously mundane, but also obviously the adventurers. And the skulls just grin at them, welcoming them 'home'. If they return to the shaft later they find the rope they used to climb down on carefully coiled in the center of the floor. And very much no longer a viable escape route.
In the Dark
Combat encounters should be composed primarily of undead, especially spirits and/or creatures with darkness powers. Try to keep track of what the party is using for lighting, and keep track of what they can't see. They get the impression that something keeps gathering up just outside what they can see... but when they go to investigate it's just shadows. And then a half-dozen spectres swoop in from the opposite side and try to drag one of the characters off into the dark.
If you'd like to 'guide' them through the maze, then the BBEG is a sentient and extremelly hateful creature. It's a literal mass of fallen dwarven spirits, and it senses perhaps the adventurers could help it escape the deeper levels of the mine. They find things like skeletal arms pointing the way if they get lost.
The Final Encounter
The final encounter is the coalition of all the dead from the mine, raised and bound here unintentionally when the orcs tried to raise an army of zombies and the spell interacted with the artifact. The result is a massive spirit tied to the artifact. The spirit functions as a Grell (with insubstantial) of Large size, bumped up to level 8 and with some extra HP.
Every time the Spirit loses 1/4 of its HP, 2 spectres (Poltergeist ghosts from Open Grave) burst out of it and the creature shrinks in size. When the spectres are slain, whoever killed its weapon burns and shimmers with energy until they touch it to (and recharge) the artifact. If they strike the spirit with a charged weapon it grants 25 HP to the creature, and another spectre will burst forth when it loses those HP.
The spirit attempts to absorb 1 character at a time while the spectres push and disorient the other players. Once the spirit is returned to the portal there is a massive rush of wind as the variant minor undead spirits are pulled into it, and then the portal is reactivated as normal.
[If guided here and the spirit is/was friendly it is aware that using the artifact would dissipate the energies that tie it here, and it will not allow that to be done until the orcs are purged. After the wards are broken and the orcs all dead the dwarves can reclaim the mines. If you go this route then the ultimate confrontation is actually the orc ward breaking].
The party will enter the main passage of the mines a deep octagonal hole more than a milewide with stone sairs spiraling down along the walls and will continue their descent for what seems like hours until eventually they'll come across a platform large enough to camp upon with a set of double doors in the walls. Having been told not to enter the side passages by a dwarf who directed them to the mines they are likely to leave them shut and simply post a watch to keep an eye on them. Durring one player's watch an unatural wind will blow and put out the fire ("wtf we're in a cave") and the player on watch will feel something brush up against him, and as soon as he attempts to wake the other party members an NPC that they rescued from the orcs wll start shrieking madly and will be draggen in through the doors where the party will see/discover (depending on how wquickly they act) that he has been dragged down a well that appears to lead all the way to the depths of the mine. They'll also discover that the halls beyond the doors are painted in blood and the floors are covered in orc bones, and in one room they'll find an orc chieftan's war journal depicting his clans final moments in the mines after weeks of descending into madness.
Upon continueing their journy they will continue down the stairs until they stumble upon a length of broken stairs that will crumble once the whole party is on them and will drop them into an underground river deep within the city. This will involves a skill challenge to remain conscious, avoid getting swept under the water or into rocks, and saving any party members who do, until eventually they are deposited into a calm underground lake via waterfall. Here they will battle a razor Hydra, which would normally be too high a level for them to fight so I've made it ancient and blind (which creates an interesting mechanic since razor hydras target the most bloodied enemy and can do so with their sense of smell). After this the party wanders through a maze of tunnels and warrens made by kruthik and must eventually fight off a swarm. After spending some time wandering the tunnels (how long depends on the ranger) they find their way back into the city in the lowest levels where the artifact must be.
Suddenly they are ambushed by a gibbering mouther, which attempts to capture the sorcerer. The party follows its trail to a huge main chamber lines with enormous columns to find that a portal has been opened on the far side and forces of instanity and choas are flooding in from the far realm. A mind flayer attempts to channel its master's power through the portal and into the body of the sorcerer. This begins a battle wherein the sorcerer undergoes a rock/paper/scisors type minigame to battle the mindflayers attempts at dominating him, and with each success weakens the aura of insanity that prevents the rest of the party from coming near the portal. as the aura is weakened they may move forward and destroy the chatoc rifts withing the pillars that channel power through the artifact to hold the portal open. Once all the pillars are destroyed the portal begins to close and in desperation the powerful "master" from the far realms channels what power he can into the mangled corpse of the NPC lost in the upper reaches of the mines turning him into an abomination which becomes the final boss of the dungeon. After defeating him the party uses the artifact to escape the crumbling ruins and finds themselves on the other continent.
Obviously this relies on a lot of assumptions and the party will likely stray from the predicted course but I feel confident that I can rein them back in without railroading them, or selse simply wing it and change things on the fly. In any case I'll let you guys know how it went sometime tomorrow.