iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Originally posted by iserith:
The Three Pillars of Immersion
In the sunken ruins of Immersion, the city of the ancient all-male race of giant sages known as the Grognards, rests the MacGuffin Generica. This relic of all the previous iterations of Next World is the key to the Great Dissociation, the impending doom that will fall upon the world if the lingering Four Evils can see their nefarious plot to fruition: the creation of a mind-controlling grid to imprison the world, causing all of its inhabitants to cease any meaningful interaction and battle each other to the death. Unwitting agents of the Four Evils seek out this artifact, but so do agents of good - adventuring heroes that may be the world's only hope to avoid a horrible fate.
Immersion rests at the bottom of the Bog Standard, an oozing swamp and hunting grounds of the black dragon, Redscale, with only its tallest buildings still reaching above the still waters like the hand of a drowning man. Somewhere in these misty ruins lay the Vault of the MacGuffin, guarded by the deadly Grimtooth Gauntlet, an impossibly dangerous complex of traps and wards said to be impassable without knowledge of the password known only to King Neckbeard himself. By acquiring the password to the gauntlet, the key to the vault, and knowledge of where the vault is hidden, the MacGuffin Generica may be recovered.
At the entrance to the ruins, a runic map and the last rhyme of the Grognards offers a clue:
Pity we wise Grognards -
Our Immersion is Lost.
One path we demanded,
But at a terrible cost.
Will the world be righted?
Just the MacGuffin can say.
Three stout pillars remain,
To guide the next heroes' way.
Quest: Recover the MacGuffin Generica. The three pillars of Immersion - The Pillar of Interaction, The Pillar of Exploration, and The Pillar of Combat are noted on the runic map. Find them to acquire the password to the Grimtooth Gauntlet, the path to the prize, and the key to the vault.
The Pillar of Interaction
Scene Framing
The runic map has led you to a vast and once-glorious throne room now empty and ruined. Bog water drips from cracks in the ceiling and pools here and there. Rats scurry away and hide as you approach, squeaking plaintively. Before you sits the skeleton of the last regent of the Grognards, King Neckbeard the Wise, cobwebbed to his throne. Among many broken pillars stands just one and it begins to glow with a violet hue. "Hello?" a disembodied voice says. "Is somebody there?"
Before he died, the spirit of King Neckbeard the Wise possessed a pillar in his once-great throne room so that he could wait for worthy heroes to come to claim the MacGuffin Generica. With some effort (below) he vaguely recalls the password ("1-2-3-4-5") that shuts down the Grimtooth Gauntlet, but forgets where the gauntlet and vault are located and can't remember where he left the key before he died. Talking to King Neckbeard should be like talking to a lonely, forgetful old man who wants to make the conversation last as long as possible. He changes subjects frequently and forgets his points and spends a lot of time on irrelevancies.
In this interaction scene, the characters must complete each of these tasks below by whatever means they think is appropriate. Each attempt, success or fail, takes about 10 minutes because of how King Neckbeard interacts. If the PCs succeed at the four tasks, King Beckbeard gives them the password to the Grimtooth Gaunlet. In one hour, however, a wandering war band of a half-dozen orcs turns up spoiling for a fight. You will want to have telegraphed the orc's presence in the dungeon at some point during their travels and if the PCs begin to approach the 60 minute mark, they should know about the trouble that is soon to come their way. See "Lost Mine of Phandelver" for the orcs' statistics.
If the PCs prevail in the exciting battle that ensues, King Neckbeard is suitably entertained and believes the PCs to be the heroes he's been waiting for and shares the password to the Grimtooth Gauntlet. If the PCs fail to get the password before the orcs arrive and fail to defeat the orcs, they can still convince King Neckbeard of their worthiness by taking on and completing a minor quest to find his lost crown somewhere else in the ruins.
Task: Overcome King Neckbeard's Depression Caused by His Eternal Boredom (DC 10)
Task: Placate King Neckbeard's Concern About This Thing on His Back (DC 10)
Task: Indulge King Neckbeard's Passion for Out-of-Date Sports Trivia (DC 15)
Task: Help King Neckbeard Remember Facts Now Long Forgotten (DC 20)
How to Frame the Challenges:
"In talking to the disembodied voice of King Neckbeard, it is impossible not to detect a great deal of loneliness and depression in his voice, caused by his eternal boredom. He has been here trapped in this pillar with little to occupy his mind since a time beyond living memory and it shows. His indifference is hindering progress. How do you overcome his depression and boredom?"
_________________________________________
Two more Pillars of Immersion will be posted as I approach my 10,000th post on the forums! These are three scenes that I've created for use in a large dungeon complex (of an abstract design). They are appropriate for 4 or 5 1st-level PCs. In this scene, there is a countdown hovering over the PCs. Can they keep King Neckbeard focused and get the password before the orc warband shows up?
How might you frame the other challenges? How could you telegraph the threat of the orcs in an interesting way? What else would you add to this scene?
Originally posted by iserith:
The Pillar of Exploration
In a section of Immersion known as the Gray Depths, the Grognard architect known as The Pixelbitch created a mazelike area to hide the Pillar of Exploration. This pillar is hidden among many others in the maze, but only one of them is the true pillar. Each of them is inscribed with runes that make them look like the Pillar of Exploration and it is only with close inspection that its authenticity can be determined.
The very real danger in this, however, is that each fake pillar is really a gray ooze, held in stasis by magic and molded into the shape of pillars. This magic is dispelled if the pillar is disturbed in any way or if a character triggers the reaction the ooze can take. Oozes will chase the PCs as long as they are in this area, constantly pursuing and attacking the closest target possible on their turn.The authenticity of a pillar's inscription can be ascertained by examining it while adjacent and, as an action, succeeding on an Intelligence (History or Investigation) check or a Wisdom (Perception) check against DC 15. Failing this check reveals that the pillar is fake, but releases the gray ooze. Gathering all the pertinent information to the location of the Vault of the MacGuffin off the real pillar takes a full round of effort (start of a PC's turn till start of next turn or end of PC's turn till end of next turn).
Show
[sblock]Gray Ooze
Medium ooze, unaligned
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Armor Class 8
Hit Points 26 (4d8+8); see Traits below
Speed 10 ft.
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Str 12 (+1) Dex 6 (-2) Con 14 (+2)
Int 2 (-4) Wis 6 (-2) Cha 1 (-5)
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Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, prone
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 8
Languages —
Challenge ? (?? XP)
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Amorphous: The ooze can squeeze through gaps that are at least 1 inch wide.
Dissolve: Any nonmagical weapon that hits the ooze becomes damaged and takes a -1 penalty to subsequent damage rolls. This penalty is cumulative with multiple hits. If a damaged weapon's penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed. A damaged weapon costs half the weapon's cost to repair; a destroyed weapon cannot be repaired. Nonmagical ammunition that hits the ooze is destroyed instantly.
Stealthy +5: The ooze gains a +5 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
ACTIONS
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Pseudopod. Melee Weapons Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) acid damage.
REACTIONS
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Passive Threat: When a creature ends its turn next to the ooze and is unaware of it, the ooze makes a free slam attack against the triggering creature.
[/sblock]
(Map taken from this source with adaptations in Roll20.)
Scene Framing
Well-polished bones and weapons that look pitted and deteriorated are scattered along the floor of this section of the dungeon. It is a gray place with an acrid, chemical smell, and even the colors on your belongings seem muted. Rubble that has fallen from the walls and ceilings chokes the hallways in washed out piles. Somewhere in this area lay the Pillar of Exploration, but where in this mazelike place it may be is unclear.
There are three means of entering and exiting this area - wide corridors to the east and west and a hole in the ground located around the center of the map. The DM can choose the one by which the PCs enter or roll it randomly. If the PCs enter by way of a wide corridor, a thick stone wall drops to seal it off after the PCs have made their way into the maze, making it impossible to use as a way to escape the area. Rubble (marked on the map) is difficult terrain and during movement a PC may not move diagonally across a hard corner (whereas a gray ooze can due to its amorphous nature).
The challenge in this scene can get pretty deadly if the PCs are not careful or if they are unlucky. Gray oozes do move quite slowly compared to PCs, but multiple oozes, cramped quarters, difficult terrain, and deteriorating weapons might spell trouble for them. The oozes do not pursue the PCs once they escape the area.
How would you tackle this challenge if you were a PC? What would you add to it to make it better?
Originally posted by iserith:
The Pillar of Combat
Found among many levels of the Grognard archmage Vance's tower, the Pillar of Combat draws to it living creatures with violence in their heart where, upon death, they rise again as undead to continue their battles. There are six skeletons and six zombies here. See "Lost Mine of Phandelver" for their statistics. Except as noted below, the undead do not attack unless attacked or disturbed in some fashion in which case they attack en masse. Any creature slain in this chamber rises as a zombie under the DM's control one round later and begins its silent eternal march around the Pillar of Combat.
The design goal in this scene is to encourage the players to talk about their characters' histories and to consider that victory and defeat aren't always a matter of life and death.
Scene Framing
In a middle level of the archmage's tower, the stink is almost unbearable and flies buzz about. Here you come upon a horrific scene: a dozen corpses in varying states of decay slowly walking in a circle around a dais at the center of which stands The Pillar of Combat. It glows with a crimson nimbus and runs from floor to ceiling and slowly rotates. The skeletons and zombies are of various races and some bear equipment suitable to adventurers. They take no notice of your presence. At regular intervals on the pillar are four leering gargoyle faces with heads knocked to the side and a hand cupped around a pointed ear with an obvious hole in it. Inscribed on the pillar are the words: "Tell a tale of victory. Tell a tale of defeat. But a tale without violence is no mean feat." A distant din of battle lingers at the edge of perception.
When Vance created this puzzle, his goal was to give the key to the vault only to those who could recognize that victory and defeat were more than just matters of life and death in combat. It would be heroes like these who he estimated would see the bigger picture and be worthy of the prize. The key is on the top of the pillar, recessed into the ceiling. If a PC's tale of victory or defeat involves violence of any kind, the gargoyle's head curses at him for his shortsightedness: "See then what your violence has earned you!" and its face recedes into the stone of the pillar. Said PC must make a DC 12 Wisdom save or be charmed and forced to attack the nearest creature (even a friend). This act of violence provokes the nearest four zombies or skeletons into attacking until destroyed. If a PC's tale of victory or defeat does not involve violence, the gargoyle says, "There is much wisdom in this tale..." and its face recedes into the stone. When four different tales of any stripe have been offered by four different heroes, the pillar lowers into the floor and becomes a pedestal upon which rests the bejeweled key that can open the Vault of the Macguffin.
While this is the way the puzzle is designed, clever PCs might decide to skip the tale-telling altogether and try to disable the pillar in some fashion. This is a perfectly viable tact and requires the completion of several tasks with the approach determined by the player:
Task: Deafen and Silence the Gargoyles (DC 10)
Task: Distract the Undead (DC 10)
Task: Stop the Pillar's Rotation (DC 15)
Task: Pull the Pillar Down Into the Floor (DC 20)
When any check is failed, the task is completed but the nearest three undead move to attack until destroyed. If the undead are already destroyed, some other suitable setback is in order.
How to Frame a Challenge:
"As you set about trying to disable this pillar to get at the key, the gargoyles begin hurling curses and epithets at you. While sticks and stones can break yourr bones and names can never hurt you, it is riling up the undead in this chamber who begin groaning and looking at you menacingly. If something isn't done to silence them, these corpses may attack. What do you do?"
______________________________________________
What tales of victory and defeat might your favorite PC tell? How would you add to this to improve the scene?
Originally posted by SwampDog:
None of this makes any sense to me.
Originally posted by sleypy:
Just to be clear...
So "scene framing" is background information for DM?
"How to Frame the Challenges" is the default information for players?
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by iserith:
I'll be posting the Pillar of Combat later today.
"How to Frame the Challenges" is an example of how a DM might address the tasks necessary to overcome the challenge presented by King Neckbeard, in addition to normal interaction with him.
Originally posted by Reinhart:
Occasional posts like these are pretty much the only reason I still lurk here. Darn that intermittant reinforcement!
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by AaronOfBarbaria:
Originally posted by bawylie:
The strength of these scenarios is that there's no right way to do it.
You can just go left and leave a trail of breadcrumbs and eventually come out on top. You can engage the puzzle and try to win the challenge the legit way. You can burn everything to the ground and then let the sage sort it all out after.
Everyone of those things has risks and time limits and safety concerns. If you've been battered around after pillar 1, maybe you're less keen on a fight by pillar 3. Luckily, Iserith has accommodated you with an open approach.
This is a great case of "build obstacles, not solutions."
One very minor gripe I have is that the objectives could be made clearer overall. Maybe as a reminder - "why are we here again?" In order to recover the McGuffin Generica, you must acquire the map to the vault, the key, and the password which are all secured by one of three arcane pillars.
Originally posted by iserith:
I'll see about reiterating the quest goals in each scene. It's mentioned up top under "Quest" but is probably easily lost or forgotten as one reads on.
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by iserith:
Maybe a scroll of augury or the like would be a good treasure to seed prior to this scene or put somewhere in the scene. What do you think of the wand that could turn a gray ooze back into a pillar for a round or so? How many charges do you think it should have remaining? I'm thinking two and it is seeded somewhere between the west corridor and the hole. Thoughts?
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by BoldItalic:
If Chuck tells the story of how they teamed up with the goblins in your Fandango reworking, would that be a suitable example of a victory without violence?
Originally posted by Caliburn101.:
Nice extended metaphor Bold...
Originally posted by iserith:
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by iserith:
Success with consequences (or "progress combined with a setback") is mentioned on page 58 of the Basic Rules. Context would tell how determining the authenticity of the pillar releases the ooze based on how the player describes his character's approach. It could be as simple as "I know it's a fake because it just turned into an ooze."
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by iserith:
If I were playing this, after I got burned by the first pillar, I'd probably just throw rocks at them from afar or tap them with a 10'-pole. Which seems fitting for a maze designed by The Pixelbitch!
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by iserith:
I wonder if another good move would be to just (after discovering the first fake pillar and ooze) to cautiously move about the whole maze mapping the place and then coming up with a strategy to minimize getting trapped as the group checks pillars. There's no time pressure in this scene unlike the Pillar of Interaction.
Originally posted by Cyber-Dave:
Huh. I thought this thread would be about Jennifer Cover's statement that the three key types of immersion in a TRPG are temporal, spatial, and emotional...
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Originally posted by iserith:
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Although… It seems like this encounter probably needs to be run round by round rather than free-form, in order to know when an ooze pillar's reaction triggers. This would mean that two characters can't be next to the pillar without it triggering, unless you can ready an action to move and help.
Originally posted by iserith:
Once oozes are released, marching order also becomes a concern since only one melee character can be brought to bear against an ooze unless they can get on either side of it. Hopefully the party has some decent ranged attacks. Not to mention that weapons start degrading from the very first hit.
I think I'll definitely add the wand in there and seed Augury scrolls in the Interaction scene, perhaps hidden in a compartment on the throne.
Originally posted by BoldItalic:
In the Pillar of Exploration problem, suppose a Wizard who knows the Detect Magic spell casts it, from a safe distance, on each pillar. (If necessary, he can cast it repeatedly as a ritual without using slots if there is no time pressure). It would reveal the stasis magic. Would this constitute a disurbance that would break the stasis? I think I would want to rule that it did, otherwise the problem is too easy. Alternatively, I would cover the true pillar with a harmless effect of the same school as stasis so that Detect Magic couldn't trivially distinguish the true pillar from the false ones.
Originally posted by iserith:
So all in all I think it's a fair and smart tactic!
Originally posted by ittyan:
Iserith, you always have the best names for things.
Originally posted by iserith:
The Three Pillars of Immersion
In the sunken ruins of Immersion, the city of the ancient all-male race of giant sages known as the Grognards, rests the MacGuffin Generica. This relic of all the previous iterations of Next World is the key to the Great Dissociation, the impending doom that will fall upon the world if the lingering Four Evils can see their nefarious plot to fruition: the creation of a mind-controlling grid to imprison the world, causing all of its inhabitants to cease any meaningful interaction and battle each other to the death. Unwitting agents of the Four Evils seek out this artifact, but so do agents of good - adventuring heroes that may be the world's only hope to avoid a horrible fate.
Immersion rests at the bottom of the Bog Standard, an oozing swamp and hunting grounds of the black dragon, Redscale, with only its tallest buildings still reaching above the still waters like the hand of a drowning man. Somewhere in these misty ruins lay the Vault of the MacGuffin, guarded by the deadly Grimtooth Gauntlet, an impossibly dangerous complex of traps and wards said to be impassable without knowledge of the password known only to King Neckbeard himself. By acquiring the password to the gauntlet, the key to the vault, and knowledge of where the vault is hidden, the MacGuffin Generica may be recovered.
At the entrance to the ruins, a runic map and the last rhyme of the Grognards offers a clue:
Pity we wise Grognards -
Our Immersion is Lost.
One path we demanded,
But at a terrible cost.
Will the world be righted?
Just the MacGuffin can say.
Three stout pillars remain,
To guide the next heroes' way.
Quest: Recover the MacGuffin Generica. The three pillars of Immersion - The Pillar of Interaction, The Pillar of Exploration, and The Pillar of Combat are noted on the runic map. Find them to acquire the password to the Grimtooth Gauntlet, the path to the prize, and the key to the vault.
The Pillar of Interaction
Scene Framing
The runic map has led you to a vast and once-glorious throne room now empty and ruined. Bog water drips from cracks in the ceiling and pools here and there. Rats scurry away and hide as you approach, squeaking plaintively. Before you sits the skeleton of the last regent of the Grognards, King Neckbeard the Wise, cobwebbed to his throne. Among many broken pillars stands just one and it begins to glow with a violet hue. "Hello?" a disembodied voice says. "Is somebody there?"
Before he died, the spirit of King Neckbeard the Wise possessed a pillar in his once-great throne room so that he could wait for worthy heroes to come to claim the MacGuffin Generica. With some effort (below) he vaguely recalls the password ("1-2-3-4-5") that shuts down the Grimtooth Gauntlet, but forgets where the gauntlet and vault are located and can't remember where he left the key before he died. Talking to King Neckbeard should be like talking to a lonely, forgetful old man who wants to make the conversation last as long as possible. He changes subjects frequently and forgets his points and spends a lot of time on irrelevancies.
In this interaction scene, the characters must complete each of these tasks below by whatever means they think is appropriate. Each attempt, success or fail, takes about 10 minutes because of how King Neckbeard interacts. If the PCs succeed at the four tasks, King Beckbeard gives them the password to the Grimtooth Gaunlet. In one hour, however, a wandering war band of a half-dozen orcs turns up spoiling for a fight. You will want to have telegraphed the orc's presence in the dungeon at some point during their travels and if the PCs begin to approach the 60 minute mark, they should know about the trouble that is soon to come their way. See "Lost Mine of Phandelver" for the orcs' statistics.
If the PCs prevail in the exciting battle that ensues, King Neckbeard is suitably entertained and believes the PCs to be the heroes he's been waiting for and shares the password to the Grimtooth Gauntlet. If the PCs fail to get the password before the orcs arrive and fail to defeat the orcs, they can still convince King Neckbeard of their worthiness by taking on and completing a minor quest to find his lost crown somewhere else in the ruins.
Task: Overcome King Neckbeard's Depression Caused by His Eternal Boredom (DC 10)
Task: Placate King Neckbeard's Concern About This Thing on His Back (DC 10)
Task: Indulge King Neckbeard's Passion for Out-of-Date Sports Trivia (DC 15)
Task: Help King Neckbeard Remember Facts Now Long Forgotten (DC 20)
How to Frame the Challenges:
"In talking to the disembodied voice of King Neckbeard, it is impossible not to detect a great deal of loneliness and depression in his voice, caused by his eternal boredom. He has been here trapped in this pillar with little to occupy his mind since a time beyond living memory and it shows. His indifference is hindering progress. How do you overcome his depression and boredom?"
_________________________________________
Two more Pillars of Immersion will be posted as I approach my 10,000th post on the forums! These are three scenes that I've created for use in a large dungeon complex (of an abstract design). They are appropriate for 4 or 5 1st-level PCs. In this scene, there is a countdown hovering over the PCs. Can they keep King Neckbeard focused and get the password before the orc warband shows up?
How might you frame the other challenges? How could you telegraph the threat of the orcs in an interesting way? What else would you add to this scene?
Originally posted by iserith:
The Pillar of Exploration
In a section of Immersion known as the Gray Depths, the Grognard architect known as The Pixelbitch created a mazelike area to hide the Pillar of Exploration. This pillar is hidden among many others in the maze, but only one of them is the true pillar. Each of them is inscribed with runes that make them look like the Pillar of Exploration and it is only with close inspection that its authenticity can be determined.
The very real danger in this, however, is that each fake pillar is really a gray ooze, held in stasis by magic and molded into the shape of pillars. This magic is dispelled if the pillar is disturbed in any way or if a character triggers the reaction the ooze can take. Oozes will chase the PCs as long as they are in this area, constantly pursuing and attacking the closest target possible on their turn.The authenticity of a pillar's inscription can be ascertained by examining it while adjacent and, as an action, succeeding on an Intelligence (History or Investigation) check or a Wisdom (Perception) check against DC 15. Failing this check reveals that the pillar is fake, but releases the gray ooze. Gathering all the pertinent information to the location of the Vault of the MacGuffin off the real pillar takes a full round of effort (start of a PC's turn till start of next turn or end of PC's turn till end of next turn).
Show
[sblock]Gray Ooze
Medium ooze, unaligned
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Armor Class 8
Hit Points 26 (4d8+8); see Traits below
Speed 10 ft.
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Str 12 (+1) Dex 6 (-2) Con 14 (+2)
Int 2 (-4) Wis 6 (-2) Cha 1 (-5)
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Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, prone
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 8
Languages —
Challenge ? (?? XP)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Amorphous: The ooze can squeeze through gaps that are at least 1 inch wide.
Dissolve: Any nonmagical weapon that hits the ooze becomes damaged and takes a -1 penalty to subsequent damage rolls. This penalty is cumulative with multiple hits. If a damaged weapon's penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed. A damaged weapon costs half the weapon's cost to repair; a destroyed weapon cannot be repaired. Nonmagical ammunition that hits the ooze is destroyed instantly.
Stealthy +5: The ooze gains a +5 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
ACTIONS
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Pseudopod. Melee Weapons Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) acid damage.
REACTIONS
-------------------------------------------------------------
Passive Threat: When a creature ends its turn next to the ooze and is unaware of it, the ooze makes a free slam attack against the triggering creature.
[/sblock]
(Map taken from this source with adaptations in Roll20.)
Scene Framing
Well-polished bones and weapons that look pitted and deteriorated are scattered along the floor of this section of the dungeon. It is a gray place with an acrid, chemical smell, and even the colors on your belongings seem muted. Rubble that has fallen from the walls and ceilings chokes the hallways in washed out piles. Somewhere in this area lay the Pillar of Exploration, but where in this mazelike place it may be is unclear.
There are three means of entering and exiting this area - wide corridors to the east and west and a hole in the ground located around the center of the map. The DM can choose the one by which the PCs enter or roll it randomly. If the PCs enter by way of a wide corridor, a thick stone wall drops to seal it off after the PCs have made their way into the maze, making it impossible to use as a way to escape the area. Rubble (marked on the map) is difficult terrain and during movement a PC may not move diagonally across a hard corner (whereas a gray ooze can due to its amorphous nature).
The challenge in this scene can get pretty deadly if the PCs are not careful or if they are unlucky. Gray oozes do move quite slowly compared to PCs, but multiple oozes, cramped quarters, difficult terrain, and deteriorating weapons might spell trouble for them. The oozes do not pursue the PCs once they escape the area.
How would you tackle this challenge if you were a PC? What would you add to it to make it better?
Originally posted by iserith:
The Pillar of Combat
Found among many levels of the Grognard archmage Vance's tower, the Pillar of Combat draws to it living creatures with violence in their heart where, upon death, they rise again as undead to continue their battles. There are six skeletons and six zombies here. See "Lost Mine of Phandelver" for their statistics. Except as noted below, the undead do not attack unless attacked or disturbed in some fashion in which case they attack en masse. Any creature slain in this chamber rises as a zombie under the DM's control one round later and begins its silent eternal march around the Pillar of Combat.
The design goal in this scene is to encourage the players to talk about their characters' histories and to consider that victory and defeat aren't always a matter of life and death.
Scene Framing
In a middle level of the archmage's tower, the stink is almost unbearable and flies buzz about. Here you come upon a horrific scene: a dozen corpses in varying states of decay slowly walking in a circle around a dais at the center of which stands The Pillar of Combat. It glows with a crimson nimbus and runs from floor to ceiling and slowly rotates. The skeletons and zombies are of various races and some bear equipment suitable to adventurers. They take no notice of your presence. At regular intervals on the pillar are four leering gargoyle faces with heads knocked to the side and a hand cupped around a pointed ear with an obvious hole in it. Inscribed on the pillar are the words: "Tell a tale of victory. Tell a tale of defeat. But a tale without violence is no mean feat." A distant din of battle lingers at the edge of perception.
When Vance created this puzzle, his goal was to give the key to the vault only to those who could recognize that victory and defeat were more than just matters of life and death in combat. It would be heroes like these who he estimated would see the bigger picture and be worthy of the prize. The key is on the top of the pillar, recessed into the ceiling. If a PC's tale of victory or defeat involves violence of any kind, the gargoyle's head curses at him for his shortsightedness: "See then what your violence has earned you!" and its face recedes into the stone of the pillar. Said PC must make a DC 12 Wisdom save or be charmed and forced to attack the nearest creature (even a friend). This act of violence provokes the nearest four zombies or skeletons into attacking until destroyed. If a PC's tale of victory or defeat does not involve violence, the gargoyle says, "There is much wisdom in this tale..." and its face recedes into the stone. When four different tales of any stripe have been offered by four different heroes, the pillar lowers into the floor and becomes a pedestal upon which rests the bejeweled key that can open the Vault of the Macguffin.
While this is the way the puzzle is designed, clever PCs might decide to skip the tale-telling altogether and try to disable the pillar in some fashion. This is a perfectly viable tact and requires the completion of several tasks with the approach determined by the player:
Task: Deafen and Silence the Gargoyles (DC 10)
Task: Distract the Undead (DC 10)
Task: Stop the Pillar's Rotation (DC 15)
Task: Pull the Pillar Down Into the Floor (DC 20)
When any check is failed, the task is completed but the nearest three undead move to attack until destroyed. If the undead are already destroyed, some other suitable setback is in order.
How to Frame a Challenge:
"As you set about trying to disable this pillar to get at the key, the gargoyles begin hurling curses and epithets at you. While sticks and stones can break yourr bones and names can never hurt you, it is riling up the undead in this chamber who begin groaning and looking at you menacingly. If something isn't done to silence them, these corpses may attack. What do you do?"
______________________________________________
What tales of victory and defeat might your favorite PC tell? How would you add to this to improve the scene?
Originally posted by SwampDog:
None of this makes any sense to me.
Originally posted by sleypy:
Just to be clear...
So "scene framing" is background information for DM?
"How to Frame the Challenges" is the default information for players?
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
How much of the information in this post does my character know? If it's up to me, and the character knows all of it, I go to the real pillar, fight the grey ooze there, and study the pillar. If my knowledge is limited to, say, the first paragraph, it depends on where I enter.
Originally posted by iserith:
These are three scenes from a larger dungeon. The details of the rest of the dungeon are left blank for other DMs to fill in. The objective of the thread is to show a few ways to frame scenes, telegraph threats, offer compelling stakes, and adjudicate the challenges presented fairly using the rules. The "setting" for all this plays on certain aspects of gamer culture and of D&D design philosophy.
I'll be posting the Pillar of Combat later today.
"Scene Framing" is "boxed text." The DM would read something like that to the players.
"How to Frame the Challenges" is an example of how a DM might address the tasks necessary to overcome the challenge presented by King Neckbeard, in addition to normal interaction with him.
As above - you'd know the Scene Framing details and what you could see of the maps when your character arrives on the scene. You'd also know the details presented in the first post regarding the quest itself.
Originally posted by Reinhart:
Occasional posts like these are pretty much the only reason I still lurk here. Darn that intermittant reinforcement!
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Got it. I'd use the left hand rule and examine each pillar, since there are no clues to follow.
Originally posted by AaronOfBarbaria:
And I'll follow behind him leaving a trail of both string and chalk marks on the wall and floor, just in case of some, but not all of the, gremlins.
Originally posted by bawylie:
The strength of these scenarios is that there's no right way to do it.
You can just go left and leave a trail of breadcrumbs and eventually come out on top. You can engage the puzzle and try to win the challenge the legit way. You can burn everything to the ground and then let the sage sort it all out after.
Everyone of those things has risks and time limits and safety concerns. If you've been battered around after pillar 1, maybe you're less keen on a fight by pillar 3. Luckily, Iserith has accommodated you with an open approach.
This is a great case of "build obstacles, not solutions."
One very minor gripe I have is that the objectives could be made clearer overall. Maybe as a reminder - "why are we here again?" In order to recover the McGuffin Generica, you must acquire the map to the vault, the key, and the password which are all secured by one of three arcane pillars.
Originally posted by iserith:
Thanks!
Depending on where you started, you might be fighting or running from a lot of gray oozes. But that's kind of the fun of this challenge, I think. bawylie suggested some Pacman-esque mechanics that I might incorporate in the form of a wand that can be found that can turn a gray ooze into a pillar for a short time. A wand with limited charges to do that might be an interesting resource management challenge and far more useful than getting your weapons destroyed.
Thanks, my goal is to just create interesting situations and see what the players do with them.
I'll see about reiterating the quest goals in each scene. It's mentioned up top under "Quest" but is probably easily lost or forgotten as one reads on.
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Yeah, well, that's how it goes. Unless I have some other clues, through the use of divination magic (access to which is determined by my level, which I'm assuming is 1) for example, I can only trust in procedure. But if I enter from the east, I will encounter two oozes. If I enter from the west, I will encounter four. If I enter through the hole facing east, I will encounter one before circling back to the entrance, at which point I will switch to right hand rule, after which I will encounter one more before circling back again. The same will happen if I enter facing west. Not sure what I'd do after circling back the second time, but entering through the hole is potentially the deadliest, followed by the west corridor. A lot rests on random chance, unless I have access to augury.
Originally posted by iserith:
Thanks for working that out for me. I was looking at it earlier after you mentioned using the left-hand rule and kept getting lost (I'm bad at mazes) and couldn't figure out how many fake pillars would be encountered. It sounds about right, challenge-wise.
Maybe a scroll of augury or the like would be a good treasure to seed prior to this scene or put somewhere in the scene. What do you think of the wand that could turn a gray ooze back into a pillar for a round or so? How many charges do you think it should have remaining? I'm thinking two and it is seeded somewhere between the west corridor and the hole. Thoughts?
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
The usefulness of such a wand depends on how well the oozes can track me after losing (blind)sight of me, and whether or not I can squeeze past an ooze pillar. For charges, not that many, five at the most, since the oozes are so slow anyway. As for placement, yeah, somewhere in the vicinity of the west entrance and the hole is most useful, since a character entering from the east wouldn't have as much need for it.
Originally posted by BoldItalic:
If Chuck tells the story of how they teamed up with the goblins in your Fandango reworking, would that be a suitable example of a victory without violence?
Originally posted by Caliburn101.:
Nice extended metaphor Bold...
Originally posted by iserith:
Oh that Chuck - he's such a character.
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
How long does examining a pillar take? An action?Also, I know this is success with consequences instead of failure thing is part of your playstyle, but how does becoming aware that a pillar is fake sometimes release the ooze and sometimes not? Just having some trouble with the in character logic, here.
Originally posted by iserith:
Yes, just an action. I could have sworn I had a sentence stating that, but now that I've gone back to look I must have taken it out. My goal was to have it work such that a tactic of move-action-move would be a viable approach. Edit: Thanks for the catch. I've fixed it.
Success with consequences (or "progress combined with a setback") is mentioned on page 58 of the Basic Rules. Context would tell how determining the authenticity of the pillar releases the ooze based on how the player describes his character's approach. It could be as simple as "I know it's a fake because it just turned into an ooze."
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Since disturbing the pillar (which I assume includes touching it) releases the ooze, the only scenario that would allow a succesful roll to not release the ooze is if I observe it from 5 ft. away (I assume I have to be adjacent to examine the pillar). So if I failed my roll, did I look at the pillar the wrong way? The results depending entirely on the die roll without some at least kind of logical reason for why the ooze releases could make the situation very unsatisfying to a player.
Originally posted by iserith:
Yeah, maybe you looked at it the wrong way or the ooze was awakened by your heat signature. That's all fiction that can be improvised on the spot based on context. Note also the ooze's reaction in its stat block. The ooze releases when you fail a check, when you linger next to the pillar till the end of your turn, or when you disturb it in some fashion. Those three things would need to be overcome by the player to avoid the pillar turning into an ooze. The more oozes that get released, the higher the pressure gets on the players to find the right pillar and escape with their skins and weapons intact.
If I were playing this, after I got burned by the first pillar, I'd probably just throw rocks at them from afar or tap them with a 10'-pole. Which seems fitting for a maze designed by The Pixelbitch!
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
I have too much knowledge about the encounter to say what I'd do if I were actually playing this, but examining every pillar is the optimal way, since there's a chance that the ooze will not trigger. I wouldn't disturb the pillars on purpose unless I was prepared to fight every ooze, since I wouldn't want to leave more than one alive at any one time to decrease the chance of being surrounded.iserith wrote:If I were playing this, after I got burned by the first pillar, I'd probably just throw rocks at them from afar or tap them with a 10'-pole. Which seems fitting for a maze designed by The Pixelbitch!
Originally posted by iserith:
Good point - but I sure do love getting into bad spots and then getting out of them during play! I'm usually the guy to whom everyone says "Man, your character is DUMB!" and then manage to save the day somehow by pulling out all the stops. Optimal is probably examine every pillar with one character doing a Help action. That might conceivably put two people next to a pillar though and in danger of the ooze's reaction.
I wonder if another good move would be to just (after discovering the first fake pillar and ooze) to cautiously move about the whole maze mapping the place and then coming up with a strategy to minimize getting trapped as the group checks pillars. There's no time pressure in this scene unlike the Pillar of Interaction.
Originally posted by Cyber-Dave:
Huh. I thought this thread would be about Jennifer Cover's statement that the three key types of immersion in a TRPG are temporal, spatial, and emotional...
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
Since the ooze only gets one reaction, it makes no difference whether one or two are next to it.
Originally posted by iserith:
"Gotcha?"
I meant only that you're putting two PCs at some risk rather than just the one. Could be safety in numbers though since I'd probably just roll randomly to determine who gets attacked.
Originally posted by The_White_Sorcerer:
The risk when one character is adjacent is "one character gets attacked," same as with two characters. If the character making the roll is, say, the party wizard because he's got the best chance of success and the helper is the party fighter because he's the buffest one, the risk to the one examining the pillar is actually decreased because there's a higher chance that the character being attacked will survive. Succeeding on the check practically removes the ooze as a threat, so gaining advantage outweighs the risk of someone other than the roller being damaged by a massive margin.
Although… It seems like this encounter probably needs to be run round by round rather than free-form, in order to know when an ooze pillar's reaction triggers. This would mean that two characters can't be next to the pillar without it triggering, unless you can ready an action to move and help.
Originally posted by iserith:
Yes, round by round is how it would be run in my mind. A wizard with a +3 Int bonus and Investigation as a skill is going to have a 55% chance of success or 79.75% chance with Help. Highest AC and/or highest HP character is best for helping. I think the tricky part is not ending anyone's turns next to the pillar. Once the players can figure that out, then they should have the best chances of not triggering oozes. A rogue with Expertise in Investigation and a 14 Int would be a better choice still (60% alone or 84% with Help).
Once oozes are released, marching order also becomes a concern since only one melee character can be brought to bear against an ooze unless they can get on either side of it. Hopefully the party has some decent ranged attacks. Not to mention that weapons start degrading from the very first hit.
I think I'll definitely add the wand in there and seed Augury scrolls in the Interaction scene, perhaps hidden in a compartment on the throne.
Originally posted by BoldItalic:
In the Pillar of Exploration problem, suppose a Wizard who knows the Detect Magic spell casts it, from a safe distance, on each pillar. (If necessary, he can cast it repeatedly as a ritual without using slots if there is no time pressure). It would reveal the stasis magic. Would this constitute a disurbance that would break the stasis? I think I would want to rule that it did, otherwise the problem is too easy. Alternatively, I would cover the true pillar with a harmless effect of the same school as stasis so that Detect Magic couldn't trivially distinguish the true pillar from the false ones.
Originally posted by iserith:
Good question. I don't think I would rule it a disturbance. There are some limitations to its use, outside of eating up a spell slot (these are 1st-level PCs after all). It can't go through the walls since it can't penetrate more than a foot of stone. Each viewing requires an action and it's a Concentration spell up to 10 minutes. (I'm not sure how long it would actually take to walk around spending actions. I guess we'd have to roughly calculate the party's chosen pace.) The party would probably have to deal with one ooze before thinking to cast Detect Magic and that makes (probably) a moderate to challenging encounter on its own. Add the other ooze near the actual pillar and it might be up to hard.
So all in all I think it's a fair and smart tactic!
Originally posted by ittyan:
Iserith, you always have the best names for things.
Originally posted by iserith:
Thanks man, giving things pulpy names is one of my guilty pleasures.
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