Collaborative Cave!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Whizbang: keep in mind that #4 contains either some sort of Swarm (bat swarm?) or poisonous gases from the dragon's breath weapon. Also, #12 further into the cave complex, contains a small group of stranded kobold or goblin adventurers. See the posts higher up in this thread...

I know, but I did jump in with this idea well before those posts were made. Mine's a work in progress and I'll certainly continue to adapt it to what's come later, but collaboration is a two-or-three-or-four way street.

I don't see any issue with the bats, though. A kobold's barricade is likely to be even lower than a medium-sized creature's one, and the bats would ignore all of that in favor of just flying out along the ceiling.

One other observation: it looks like this dungeon is becoming very heavy on the acid attacks. Two green dragons, a green dragon disciple, a room full of corrosive gas, and an ooze. Maybe a bit too much of a good thing?

Eh, it's thematic. No one said it was too much of a good thing with fire or ice attacks in the Giant modules, back in the day.

 

[Conaill]

So... your band of kobolds is dedicated to the dragons and willingly offer themselves up to be eaten, right?

Any suggestions for why a good number of them (about CR 6-7 in total) might have set out to explore the farther reaches of the cave complex (i.e. 5-12) a few weeks ago? Apparently they got stuck in #12

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

First from the Forest, who already murdered one of his compatriots just to start the tribe, could have exiled them there or tricked them there. They could have also chased some adventurers in there and are now stranded and presumed dead (or written off, despite being alive) by the tribe.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Some more items for clarification...

Did you intend the water to flow in from the far waterfall, and flow out through the underwater tunnel to #10? If so, that's opposite to the direction implied by the water levels in #8-#10-#6. Or do you mean there's two inflows into #8: the waterfall in the far corner, and the tunnel from #10? In that case, we also need an outflow channel for the water...

Dang it. I asked about the water flow to ensure that I had it right. I'll fix it.

Keep in mind there's a *Large* dragon housed in this cave complex. If the passage from 2a to 6 is a "tight squeeze" requiring an Escape Artist check for a Medium creature, it should be impassable for a Large creature. Which way did you intend the dragon to enter and leave the cave complex? Or did I misinterpret something here?...

Look at the map. You'll note a bit of an alcove at the top of the map where the slope starts that leads to Area 6. That is the area initially described, a seperate node before starting down the slope.

RC

 

[der_kluge]

Some more items for clarification...

Did you intend the water to flow in from the far waterfall, and flow out through the underwater tunnel to #10? If so, that's opposite to the direction implied by the water levels in #8-#10-#6. Or do you mean there's two inflows into #8: the waterfall in the far corner, and the tunnel from #10? In that case, we also need an outflow channel for the water...

I just added a waterfall for added effect. The water flows from 6 to 10 to 8.

The outflow could just be any number of small underground streams that have bored through the shale over time, and are far too small to swim through.

 

[der_kluge]

I was just thinking that it may make more sense if these two rooms were swapped. #11 is awfully far from where the dragons reside, for gas to accumulate there. Area 4 might be a better place for that - it's even deepr than #11, and it's al downhill from 2a to there (compared to #11 which is located after a significant rise in #5). (Also, the "pool" in #12 may or may not wind up being an actual pool...)

What do you say - makes sense?

Area 11 could be the dragon's toilet. If a dragon's breath is bad, imagine what their crap must stink like.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Area 11 could be the dragon's toilet. If a dragon's breath is bad, imagine what their crap must stink like.

So many scary images and follow-on thoughts from there ...

/shudder

 

[Raven Crowking]

Area 11 could be the dragon's toilet. If a dragon's breath is bad, imagine what their crap must stink like.

Otyugh.

Rot grubs (Tome of Horrors, OGL compliant)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Man, I miss rot grubs.

 

[Conaill]

Area 11 could be the dragon's toilet. If a dragon's breath is bad, imagine what their crap must stink like.

For the truly dedicated explorer... dragon poop also contains all the magic items, gold and gems of earlier adventureers that were swallowed whole.