The Abode of Haekeene the Mad - Tewligan stay out!

[Fathead]

I've been gaming for 22 years now, and have been DMing weekly (homebrew campaign) for the past 11 years. After a long run, I've reached DM burn-out.

To help get the fires rekindled, I'll be running some modules, as well as designing a few short adventures.

The Abode of Haekeene the Mad is a call back to the old school adventure plot of the abandoned mages tower that a group of adventurers ransack. The catch is that the tower is not abandoned. The group will be sent on this adventure by an enemy (of course, he'll hire the group through someone else). The enemy knows that the tower is not abandoned. He knows that Haekeene is away from the tower for an extended period of time, and is taking this opportunity to get back at both Haekeene and the adventuring group.

Either way, the group will be entering the Abode of Haekeene the Mad, who is reknowned for his eccentric behavior and for the oddities collected in his tower.

I'm asking my fellow EnWorlders to help me with some ideas of what this tower contains.

Some of my own ideas:

1. a gallery of magical creatures, items, statues, and art objects.. For instance, there will be a painting contained in a class case. The yellow texture on the painting is actually yellow mold.
2. a workshop where Haekeene does wood-working on puppets (who, of course, are animated)
3. the apprentice of Haekeene (who will attempt to fend off the "thieves and brigands" using the magical defenses and odditites scattered throughout the tower).

 

[diaglo]

make heavy use of free web stuff.

the wizards site has some cool web enhancements for their products... try this one:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20030328c

there is a tomb of a wizard inside.... adjust it to be active.


edit: for other ideas visit: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/archive.asp?x=dnd/we,3

 

[Dakkareth]

I have only paged through it, but the stronghold builders guide has many suggestions for building keeps, etc - what's good for the players is just as good for the DM.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I've been gaming for 22 years now, and have been DMing weekly (homebrew campaign) for the past 11 years. After a long run, I've reached DM burn-out.

Either way, the group will be entering the Abode of Haekeene the Mad, who is reknowned for his eccentric behavior and for the oddities collected in his tower.

Hmmm. I've got something right up your alley *BUT* it was from a campaign that Tewligan played in ~10 years ago. That's been so longhe might not remember. It was a 2E design but shouldn't be too hard to update.

From memory it had:

Entrance hall: statuary. Some mundane, some creatures that have been turned to stone waiting for the "stone to flesh" trap to engage, a stone golem in the shape of a gargoyle (they hated that), and a "teleporting medusa" illusion (watch as everyone covers their eyes and tries to fight blind!)

plant & animal collections. Imagine a series of multi-acre halls each with their own microclimate. Desert, arctic, rainforest, forest, aquatic, etc. It basically lets you justify having every man-eating plant in one place, and all the odd-ball critters that don't seem to fit (I dropped a lot of psionic monsters in here). He *might* recognize some of the custom creatures, such as the flying pirhana (they don't really fly, just a jump-glide, but the path goes between a series of ponds so the schools can maul intruders.) But you could ditch them.

Proactive Library (aka hall of animated stuff): animated carpet, tables, chairs, bookcases etc.

Spiral hall. Pure trap, but it's a hallway with a spiral design with a reverse gravity field working at an oblique angle to the spiral. In other words, a total mind game. Destroys virtually all use of missle weapons and makes combat a nightmare. IIRC, I used beholder-kin in here that don't give a crap about gravity.

If you want it, send me an email: james at clan-geek dot org

 

[Fathead]

Hmmm. I've got something right up your alley *BUT* it was from a campaign that Tewligan played in ~10 years ago. That's been so longhe might not remember. It was a 2E design but shouldn't be too hard to update.

From memory it had:

Entrance hall: statuary. Some mundane, some creatures that have been turned to stone waiting for the "stone to flesh" trap to engage, a stone golem in the shape of a gargoyle (they hated that), and a "teleporting medusa" illusion (watch as everyone covers their eyes and tries to fight blind!)

plant & animal collections. Imagine a series of multi-acre halls each with their own microclimate. Desert, arctic, rainforest, forest, aquatic, etc. It basically lets you justify having every man-eating plant in one place, and all the odd-ball critters that don't seem to fit (I dropped a lot of psionic monsters in here). He *might* recognize some of the custom creatures, such as the flying pirhana (they don't really fly, just a jump-glide, but the path goes between a series of ponds so the schools can maul intruders.) But you could ditch them.

Proactive Library (aka hall of animated stuff): animated carpet, tables, chairs, bookcases etc.

Spiral hall. Pure trap, but it's a hallway with a spiral design with a reverse gravity field working at an oblique angle to the spiral. In other words, a total mind game. Destroys virtually all use of missle weapons and makes combat a nightmare. IIRC, I used beholder-kin in here that don't give a crap about gravity.

If you want it, send me an email: james at clan-geek dot org

I like the idea of the Medusa illusion...funny stuff. I had already planned on plenty of animated items...enough to keep the group paranoid of furniture and wall furnishings.

I'll definitely shoot an email your way.

Keep the suggestions coming!

 

[Fathead]

Tonight is gaming night, and the floor is still open to suggestions! I'll be compiling the best ideas and working it together quickly for tonight! Keep 'em comin'!

 

[Gilladian]

Tonight is gaming night, and the floor is still open to suggestions! I'll be compiling the best ideas and working it together quickly for tonight! Keep 'em comin'!

Perhaps something in the tower could help them part of the time; maybe a ghost of a previous intruder. Also don't forget to include lots of magical effects that are just cool things to wonder about; levitation shafts for moving up and down levels, step-stairs in the library that animate and fetch the book you ask for, lots of stuff like that.

Since I'm a cat person, I'd probably include a whole family of supercilious intelligent flying cats that plague the party everywhere they go. PC's rarely want to kill "innocent kitties".

HTH,
Gilladian

 

[Fathead]

We played the first session of The Abode of Haekeene the Mad yesterday, and will finish it next week (so if there a still more suggestions, post away...if I like it, I'll incorporate the idea).

I used the "medusa illusion" idea, and it sent the group into a panic. Half stayed to fight the illusion while closing their eyes or averting their gaze. The other half fled "strategically" to the previous room. Tewligan was the first to tuck tail and run, leaving a trail of urine leading into the previous room. Good stuff!

The group spent plenty of time in the "trophy" room that I was planning. The painting in the glass container (with the yellow mold used as texture for the rays of the sun) drew a lot of speculation. Eventually, curiousity got the better of them, and they coerced Tewligan into opening the glass container. Tewligan believed that the painting would transport his character somewhere, so he decided to touch the "yellow fuzzy texture" in the painting. Those near him were not too happy with the outcome.

Also among the "trophies" were a mimic (in the shape of a mounted unicorn head), a cloaker, and a manticore hide (which didn't have any bad side effects...it was simply worth 40,000 gp...well, at least it WAS up until one of the paranoid PCs peppered the hide with arrows).

 

[kigmatzomat]

Glad to hear the medusa illusion worked.

Ahh, I remember something else that was just plain evil. Wrap a basilisk in an illusion of a behir, particularly a behir with some protective magics. While it's fairly harmless with the illusion concealing its eyes (basilisks are weak in combat), once they dispel it the fun will start as the dispeller immediate has to make a save. If you want to feel better, have the illusion be part of a high DC trap. If the rogue defeats the trap, no illusion.

Oh, and toss in a disenchanter beast. IIRC, they look like long-legged ardvaarks whose snout drains magic off. I'd give them a single-object version of Mord's disjunction and give them temp hps equal to every 1000gp of magic item they destroy. They were from either 1e MM2 or 1e fiend folio, I think. Not very tough and not evil but they will create total havoc. IIRC, the one I used had a spell-turning effect on it to make life even more interesting.