[plots] What kinds of things would find in a Moria-like Dwarven complex?

My players stay out.


Next game session, the players are headed towards an ancient dwarven complex, not unlike Moria from LoTR.

One of the players is a dwarf, and his ancestry comes from this stronghold (the Firebeard clan). He had a vision a number of years ago to retrieve a dragonscale shield - of a red dragon. This is an oddity because red dragons don't exist in the world. At least, not anymore. An ice age that came about 200,000 years ago wiped them out - making this particular shield very old indeed.

The players are trapped on a lost continent, and the dwarf learned the location of his ancestral home. This dwarven complex is long abandoned. Before heading on this expedition, he had received another visiion from an ancestor that he should seek out the dwarven stronghold.

Now, this is what I'm thinking:

At the time of the ice age, there was a great cataclysm (think nuclear winter) and lots of creatures would have attempted to fight their way into this underground complex to escape the harsh realities of life on the surface. Hence, the dwarves would have massive defenses set up to defend. Eventually, they would prevail, and then the ice age would have set in. Red dragons would have been especially susceptible to the conditions and perhaps would have made a pact with the dwarves for safe-haven within their realm. I intend to have the dwarf find the mate to his dragonscale shield - a set of dragonscale armor, which, when combined with the shield will allow him to summon forth a red dragon to aid him in combat. This effect is usable once, and only once. The party is 11th level currently. Also, if I can make this dwarven complex large enough to occupy them for some time, that would be awesome. If they don't see the light of day until 13th level - fine by me.

So, I was thinking of turning all the inhabitants of the dwarven stronghold into Shadows. So, the place will literally be the home to like 1,000 shadows. This has the potential to be a TPK if the cleric runs out of turn undead. Shadows are weak, but they get strength draining touch attacks, so even an 11th level party that gets surrounded by 50 shadows will have some serious worrying to do.

Having a complex filled with undead like this unfortunately limits the other kinds of things I can put in there. Constructs and undead are really my only other choices. Living creatures would be bad anyway since there wouldn't be much of an ecology to speak of, unless something has figured out a way to eat shadows (unlikely).

Anyway, I'm rambling at this point. Just wanted some feedback on how I can make this work, without it becoming drudgery. I was thinking of having a shadow dragon be in there somewhere. And traps - traps, traps, traps, everywhere.

Well, one option, if you're going with the undead angle, would be to have the war between the dwarves and their enemies still be ongoing. Dwarven skeletons and zombies locked in a constant war with the undead remains of their enemies. Add in an evil relic that causes the undead to constantly reanimate, and you have a war that would continue ad infinitum, unless the PCs intervene.

As far as living creatures go, you could start with fungi which can grow just about anywhere that there's a source of moisture, and then work up from there. You might not be able to justify large predators, but you could certainly work with several smaller predators to give the PCs a challenge.

That's all that comes to mind right now, but it's an interesting concept ... will keep thinking on it.

Soundbyte

Hadn't considered that angle. That's interesting. And I had forgotten about my friend the mold. Brown mold is just nasty, nasty, nasty stuff. Especially when it's in a room with a bunch of undead and the wizard is just itching to toss off a fireball into the room.

die_kluge said:

Anyway, I'm rambling at this point. Just wanted some feedback on how I can make this work, without it becoming drudgery. I was thinking of having a shadow dragon be in there somewhere. And traps - traps, traps, traps, everywhere.

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Why is it that Shadow Dragons are so popular? Don't people use DracoLiches anymore. I can't think of a more suitable inhabitant if you want some kind of dragon in there. It could be so old that it remembers the original dwarven kingdom and could then be used as a source of information. Of course after all of those years it could have just gone totally insane and attack the party on sight (but where is the fun in that?). What if the dwarves decided to wait out the ice age by everyone being turned into stone so that they could later on have stone to flesh cast on them. It certainly would minimize the amount of food and water required to wait out the ice age. Perhaps the dwarven mage or cleric which was supposed to change them back was killed. Maybe a medusae mage or cleric was contracted to do the honors for them but reneged and never changed them back. You could apply the Lich template to a medusae and have her still around.

Your molds would take flesh from any zombies over the years and bones would turn to dust. I would have bone that have become petrified, stoned bone, you could say for any undead.

Artifacts could be interesting, what happens to a weapon that has an ego and IQ when it just sits around? What if it was mad and had some powers?

Animated objects, I don't think DMs use these enough. They are your everyday about-the-house items, dwarfs would have moving spot lights, chairs that raise and lower, stone chippers... Combine this with the mad artifact idea.

The creature moving in, nothing big here.

Also going on the idea of the balenorn, could there be some sort of good aligned dwarven litch who is working to free his ancestral home from the ravages of the Dracolitch/shadow dragon. Personaly hoards of mindless undead always makes me want to stop playing and take a nap, but when you start adding the intelligent undead...roleplaying opportunites spring from the very earth.

die_kluge said:

And traps - traps, traps, traps, everywhere.

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I love reverse gravity traps (the kind that auto-reset for when the run back into them trying to get away from something)

If you have the Tome of Horrors; Nabasu sound like a good fit. They're pretty tough though.

Plant food court: the attached was an idea I had on growning plants in a underground city, it is based on studies of waterways/cannals found being used by the Inca/Mayas. Just provide a light source.

I also think animals that would be raised as meat, guinea pigs and such, would still be around.

if you are really hooked on the undead angle you could go with applying the skeleton and zombie templates rather than just population the city with standard undead. Perhaps the food growing areas hve become overgrown and wild. This might allow you to either(a) have a group of living beings in the area or (b) go with the Myconid (mushroom men) bad guys in addition to the undead threat. Maybe some of the occupants of the citadel fled further underground and they are now reexploring their ancient home

thull

Vermin, especially in swarms. The giant spiders and the direrats feeding of each other for generations.

Elementals, especially of earth and fire. Bound into certain spaces by the dwarves long ago, now still standing guard, or whatever they were last told to do.

If you do use undead and constructs a very cruel thing to do is to send in a mass of skeletons, which the PCs take out, and follow it up with some constructs made to look like skeletons. Most parties wont think to cast Detect Undead when being attacked by an apparently skeletal army. It might not be much, but a few rounds of confusion can add some vareity to the campaign.

Is there an underground lake or river? Probally some source of water exists, thus opening up the field for amphibious or aquatic monsters.

And we all know what the dwarves of Moria found in the depths.