RedFox
First Post
I'm a relative newcomer to running D&D 3.5e, having just run my second session of a new game. The characters started at second level in a campaign world of my own design, and consist of an adventuring company of four PCs:
They're currently in a large Budapest-style city at the edge of a vast wasteland called Akrasia, and have just completed their first job: Rescuing a missing child from a snake cult. They tracked the child down to a bunch of viper-men (monsters of my own design) in a desert grotto, fought a giant snake, and rescued about a dozen kids. So they now have something of a reputation.
They also hit level 3, though they'll be leveling up in the beginning of next session.
To follow-up on the rather cliche snake cult, I thought I'd have a prominent person in the city ask the PCs to investigate the apparent lack of progress of an excavation in the wasteland to which he'd given his patronage.
When the PCs arrive, they'll discover that the dig has stopped due to a vault deep within a pyramid having been breached, unleashing undead guardians. The capstone of the adventure would be a mummy. It's a CR 5 challenge for a 3rd level party, so quite a fight! But I figured if I restricted the mummy to a final vault area and gave the PCs time to prepare and clues (fire bad!) it would be a fair final boss.
So I'm asking for advice, particularly in making an interesting and entertaining map / dungeon with a pyramid / Egyptian / undead theme. As I said, I've nearly 0 experience running D&D before so any advice, no matter how basic, is welcome.
Elements I'm thinking of including:
So any advice, maps, encounters, traps, or whatnot?
- Himian: CG Elf Rogue 1 / Half-Dragon (gold) 1 using the WotC savage progression template
- Lorana Starfire: LG Elf Fighter 2 with an emphasis on archery
- Liam Dorn: NG Human Cleric of Valen 2 (Domains of Travel and Luck)
- Lucien Silverleaf: LG Elf Wizard 2
They're currently in a large Budapest-style city at the edge of a vast wasteland called Akrasia, and have just completed their first job: Rescuing a missing child from a snake cult. They tracked the child down to a bunch of viper-men (monsters of my own design) in a desert grotto, fought a giant snake, and rescued about a dozen kids. So they now have something of a reputation.
They also hit level 3, though they'll be leveling up in the beginning of next session.
To follow-up on the rather cliche snake cult, I thought I'd have a prominent person in the city ask the PCs to investigate the apparent lack of progress of an excavation in the wasteland to which he'd given his patronage.
When the PCs arrive, they'll discover that the dig has stopped due to a vault deep within a pyramid having been breached, unleashing undead guardians. The capstone of the adventure would be a mummy. It's a CR 5 challenge for a 3rd level party, so quite a fight! But I figured if I restricted the mummy to a final vault area and gave the PCs time to prepare and clues (fire bad!) it would be a fair final boss.
So I'm asking for advice, particularly in making an interesting and entertaining map / dungeon with a pyramid / Egyptian / undead theme. As I said, I've nearly 0 experience running D&D before so any advice, no matter how basic, is welcome.
Elements I'm thinking of including:
- A few different factions in the camp, including perhaps a greedy thief (or ring of grave-robbers) who breached the cursed seal, native workers who are not superstitious but not at all eager to delve into an undead-infested dungeon, and gnomish scholars who could provide answers about puzzles in the dungeon if they weren't so busy trying to keep the workers on-site.
- Themed traps that require more than a mere Skill roll to figure out. i.e. puzzles.
- A cartouche, probably worked into a trap or puzzle.
- Secret passages and chambers.
- Rewarding passages of hieroglyphics that can provide clues or directions with Decipher Script.
- Undead guardians resetting traps that the archaelogists had already bypassed or disabled.
So any advice, maps, encounters, traps, or whatnot?