Help me design a cool encounter

Okay I'm planning on Ambushing my players in an old abandoned lumber mill (in Eberron) and I know what kind of foes they'll facing but I'm having trouble visuallizing the location.

How can I make this a really cool encounter? What sort of terrain and equipment should there be? What should an Eberron lumber mill look like? How can I make this a memorable encounter?

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.


Delgar

The large mill is on the river, actually straddling it (or part of it), set just above a man-made dam. Bundles of huge logs are floated down the river, sometimes with loggers balancing atop them and poling. The logs are gathered and moved to a man-made inlet just upstream from the mill to keep them until they're ready to be cut. When they are, the logs are floated right into the mill; warforged haul on a sling to lift each log out of the water and put it on the cutting chute (or pile it to the side in a cool log pile that serves as a hazard). The cutting chute leades to a waterwheel-driven blade system that slices each log into boards, using multiple saw-wheel blades spinning at high speeds due to the current. The boards emerge from the chute on the other side of the saws and are stacked, trimmed, sanded, and prepared for shipment via barge (via the river) or wagon (up the old trade road.)

Even with the mill abandoned, the rusty blades still turn, and a pile of old unprocessed logs still stands in the mill. Chains and slings hang from the ceiling; old sawdust (highly flammable!) covers the floor.

I don't know much about Eberron, but I can tell you a little bit about Sawmills, having done some research on them recently myself for a game.

First, there's going to be a woodshed where the new wood comes in and is stored. This is probably a large Yard type area with multiple piles of lumber under open shed roofs. More valuable stuff may be in an enclosed smaller yard, but it all needs to be fairly open so the lumber can dry properly.

Second, there's going to be a conveyor system to take the logs into the mill where the saws are. This can be just physical labor, or it could be a powered conveyor belt system with ropes and gears, etc...

Then there is the area where the cutting goes on. If you're using water-power, the water is likely below the mill and there will be water-wheels coming up through the floor and gears and pulleys running off them. If wind powered, then the power source will be above, and the gears/pulley system will come down from above. Bark is stripped, logs are trimmed to manageable sizes, and it is sorted into various categories.

There could even be a number of different milling rooms (the rough cut room at first, then stations where veneer is cut, lumber is "finish cut", planks are hewn, and other stuff is made. Depends on how much "finishing" they do here. Also, do they make any actual products, or does everything get sold to other folks who do the finish work?

You should have one floor that is mostly machinery, with a few machinists tending it, and another floor that is machinery and workers. Big holes in the floor or ceiling where the two mesh would be common. Dangerous areas where pulleys run, gears and saws mesh, etc... could be anywhere.

Then there will be offices, tool stores, some sort of room or rooms where the workers rest and eat lunch, etc...

Piratecat said:

The large mill is on the river, actually straddling it (or part of it), set just above a man-made dam. Bundles of huge logs are floated down the river, sometimes with loggers balancing atop them and poling. The logs are gathered and moved to a man-made inlet just upstream from the mill to keep them until they're ready to be cut. When they are, the logs are floated right into the mill; warforged haul on a sling to lift each log out of the water and put it on the cutting chute (or pile it to the side in a cool log pile that serves as a hazard). The cutting chute leades to a waterwheel-driven blade system that slices each log into boards, using multiple saw-wheel blades spinning at high speeds due to the current. The boards emerge from the chute on the other side of the saws and are stacked, trimmed, sanded, and prepared for shipment via barge (via the river) or wagon (up the old trade road.)

Even with the mill abandoned, the rusty blades still turn, and a pile of old unprocessed logs still stands in the mill. Chains and slings hang from the ceiling; old sawdust (highly flammable!) covers the floor.

Click to expand...

What PC said, but don't let the mill be completely abandoned... Have mindless constructs still endlessly operating all the machinery. Have the end product not be boards but assorted pieces of finished furniture, and at the far end of the dam is a warehouse overflowing with chairs, tables, bookshelves, chests, desks and dressers.

Oh, and why are there still logs coming down the river? More mindless lumberjack constructs upstream?

Lastly, make certain you find a copy of the song Powerhouse by Raymond Scott, and play it on a repeat loop for the entire encounter:

You could have some 'hard-to-get-to' locations where the machinery is activated which could turn the ambusher's superior defensive position into a death trap (sending them towards the spinning blades for example).

Maybe some inter-connecting swing bridges hanging from control towers above the areas described above. The bridges could have some 'rotten plank' hazards and maybe starting the rusted machinery requires a short 3 before 3 fails skill test with thievery to get it going. (one success in each tower)

As other have said, I would suggest letting the mill continue to operate, rusty and decrepit as it may be.

You should definitely consider an encounter on a conveyor belt. As the PCs fight the baddies, have all combatants constantly be subjected to random blasts of steam from pipes, saw blades whizzing past, etc. Looney Toons style!

Gregor said:

As other have said, I would suggest letting the mill continue to operate, rusty and decrepit as it may be.

You should definitely consider an encounter on a conveyor belt. As the PCs fight the baddies, have all combatants constantly be subjected to random blasts of steam from pipes, saw blades whizzing past, etc. Looney Toons style!

Click to expand...

A Tip, From Personal Experience:

The easy way to do this on a battle mat is to have the local area on the conveyor belt where the battle is happening stay "stationary" on the battle mat, while the hazards pass by on the sides (or over head)... Then you don't have to worry about how long the belt is or about the minis and the battle running off the edge of the battle mat.

Wow,

Thanks for all the help so far.

In my mind I had a vision of conveyor belts, saws and chains but just didn't know how to put it all together.

As I'm running the game online using Maptools (of which I suck at making maps), I kind of needed some ideas to get the juices flowing.

My plan was to definately still have the mill be operational if not a bit rusty and unpredictable, so that the players and enemies alike can use the terrain agaisnt their foes.

Delgar

Have the nearest bank be extremely steep, like a mini-cliff.

e.g.

This'll give you your 3D combat environment. I'd include a path to the top from a water-level section of the bank further along.

Ooh and here's a nice picture of a sawmill. In the off chance you haven't got one already:



So the steep bank in the first picture appears 'off-screen' to the viewer's left when looking at the second pic.