Cooperative Dungeon IV: Update

[Conaill]

The door to 21 has a lock with a key and the traps have disarming mechanisms too. If you don't intend for anyone to open a door ever, you don't make keys and you certainly don't leave them lying around hither and yon. Presumably Yinepu in 20 would admit authorized parties, Toth himself or high priests etc. When I wrote 15, and I hope it's fairly obvious, the idea was that a high priest or some such would enter on the day of Toth's resurrection.

Ok. Note that I made the scythe trap reset after one round. So anyone knowing it's there could just tap it with a staff and move across safely. The high priest would still have to struggle his way through the Gust of Wind area, but that's not a big deal (especially if he happened to have a Spell Resistance item that miraculously protected him )

I think I'll stick with the plastered-over entrance (unless someone comes up with a better idea), because the passage is really only intended to be used once. If there is some emergency, and the high priest needs to enter before Toth's resurrection, he can always replaster it. He'd probably need to reset traps and do some ceremonies to seal the tomb back up again anyway.

 

[Shallown]

I have I said lately how much you guys rock.

Your saving me a lot of work pulling the dingeon together by going back and self editing and colaborating on inter-room synergies.

Thanks again.

later

 

[Phineas Crow]

I need a volunteer to take the missing key figurine.

 

[Shallown]

If no one volunteer's I'll drop the key in somewhere appropriate. All part of the job. If you don't have a description posted putone in your room and I'll insert it in a room.

later

 

[Conaill]

Which figurine is left again? If it happens to be a ram, it's mine!

 

[Phineas Crow]

Which figurine is left again? If it happens to be a ram, it's mine!

Its the scarab figurine.

 

[Phineas Crow]

[snip] [snip]

3) Now that we have the hidden chambers more or less finished, it would be nice to give some subtle and prophetic hints. Things that could perhaps give them a very slight edge if they make excellent guesses, but mainly stuff that only becomes clear in retrospect. Stuf like ...

"In sarcophagus behind sarcophagus he waits to be reborn" (entrance to the secret passage is behind the image of his sarcophagus on the wall)
"The desert itself will protect him" (sand storm in the secret passage, possibly sand filling up the secret chambers after Yinepu's death)
"The animals will flock to him and welcome him back into the world" (animal keys for the door to #21)
"Yea, verily, the Ram and the Horse await his coming, and the Jackal lays at his feet" (ram statue in passage, horse in #15, Yinepu in #20)
"While the two traitors suffer in eternal torment, his six loyal guards will rise with him" (royal guards in #18)
"And on that day, he will reclaim his throne in the hall of celebrants, and the people will feast his return with songs and laughter" (Hall of Celebrants, #19)

I like this idea, also it couldn’t hurt to add a few clues in other rooms about the final room key puzzle. There are two ways to give clues about the puzzle.

The first is by hinting at the color/animal theme: red hippo, blue scarab, white ibis, green crocodile, yellow cat, purple ram, and orange asp. This can be done with visual clues, here are some examples:

- A ceramic urn with a line of hippos painted in red along its lip.
- A scarab mosaic made from small chips of brilliant blue-hued stone set in the floor.
- A pair of pewter ibis bird earrings that are painted white.
- A tattered banner with the emblem of a purple ram’s head.

The second way is to use the name of one of the seven generals in some text: Tesher Nehes, Khesbetti Mekharr, Sesh Tekhen, Uarkh Afa, Ksantha Ama, Tekhit Sera, and Uatch Hefau. Examples:

- “The dragon Xyroon fell, cut down by Uatch Hefau and his trusty archers during the battle of Varune.”
- “Ksantha Ama, general of the golden lion battalion, has been cleared of all charges related to the massacre at Amizzar.”
- “Today the gods have blessed Uarkh Afa with his first son, whom will be given the ritual of naming by King Toth’s own priest next week during the festival of the sun.”

Feel free to make your own and add them to your rooms.

 

[Conaill]

Its the scarab figurine.

Bummer. I'll leave it for Shallown to insert in some appropriate room, if nobody else picks it up. Any preference for which room you'd *like* to have it in?

Oh, and how do people feel about the "hardness 8" on the ram's head statue in the secret passage? Do you think we need to add something to bypass it?

 

[Phineas Crow]

...
Oh, and how do people feel about the "hardness 8" on the ram's head statue in the secret passage? Do you think we need to add something to bypass it?

Since its a monster, instead of hardness give it damage reduction. Something like damage reduction 10/bludgeoning, swords and pointy things do little damage, but clubs and such crack and pulverize it. A straight damage reduction 5/-- would work also.

 

[Conaill]

Yeah, that would make sense, wouldn't it? Except the MM (and the FAQ) is pretty clear that animated objects do indeed get hardness, not DR. I'd rather not deviate from the core rules if I don't have to, avoids confusion. The construct-activatable ring was already a bit of a stretch.

The extra special abilities such as hardness, Trample, etc should already be included in the listed CR, and I did label the encounter as EL4 despite the fact it's a CR3 monster and is taking -4 to AC and attacks because of being Squeezed. I figured the synergy with the Gust of Wind and the Ring of the Ram more than made up for that.

This does have the potential of being a long drawn-out battle, with the PC's barely doing any damage, and the statue getting a lot of misses...