Gulch or fallen tower?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The gulch sounds cool. Anything inaccessible by normal means makes for a neat change.

I once stole from Robert E. Howard, a doorless tower surrounded by 15' of vampire roses on all sides. The occupant had wings, and thus came and went via an opening at the top.

Ah yes, the Tower of the Elephant! A great early story in the Marvel Conan comics, too.

Hmm, have vampire roses shown up in 3E? That'd be a fun simple dungeon to run.

What did you use for the winged inhabitant?

 

[diaglo]

or another adventuring party may also hear of the tower and investigate. the race is on. being nosey people will want to know why all the mining equipment is necessary.

edit: besides making holes makes noise... wandering monster summoning IX.

 

[The_Gneech]

Ah yes, the Tower of the Elephant! A great early story in the Marvel Conan comics, too.

Hmm, have vampire roses shown up in 3E? That'd be a fun simple dungeon to run.

What did you use for the winged inhabitant?

Actually, Tower of the Elephant was a different story. ^.^' I can't recall the title of the story I'm thinking of, but originally it wasn't a Conan story; it was the "bedridden guy remembering past lives" series IIRC.

The vampire rose writeup came from the ENWorld Creature Catalogue and I think may have ended up in the Tome of Horrors.

The winged inhabitant was a dragonkin sorcerer/cleric -- my take on the "dragonpriest" from Sunless Citadel, which was the adventure my campaign started with. After they awoke him in that adventure, he made his way to the tower (which had been his stronghold before his imprisonment in Sunless Citadel). He kidnapped the party wizard and carried her off in order to use her life-force to fuel the ritual required to complete his transformation to a true dragon.

The adventure worked quite well, except that the rogue totally forgot to Tumble past the vampire roses and got all his Con sucked out. (Second time that character died, in fact.) The dragonpriest had taken on the white dragonling from Sunless Citadel as his familiar, while the party wizard's familiar was a blink dog. The two of them ended up having a harrying chase with one of the ritual components while the rest of the battle raged around them all -- to this day "The Battle of the Familiars" is one of the party's favorite memories of the campaign.

-The Gneech

 

[BiggusGeekus]

or the tower is still in the process of falling. any structural damage may cause it to collapse. killing all those below or too close and plus damaging anything inside. that valuable Ming vase is scrap now. or maybe setting off a series of magical explosions or release of some demon or devil when the circle is broken.

Oh, that's good! I can have it so that it may slide down further and off of a cliff. That might work fine.

Thanks guys. Falling tower first, dry gulch second.

 

[lukelightning]

What about a fallen tower on the other side of a gulch?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Actually, Tower of the Elephant was a different story. ^.^'

Oops, that's right.

I can't recall the title of the story I'm thinking of, but originally it wasn't a Conan story; it was the "bedridden guy remembering past lives" series IIRC.

Yeah, the Conan comics cannibalize every REH story they can.

In the comics, the winged dude sweeps down when Conan and hooker-companion-du-jour are feasting with some neanderthals and snatches her away. The neanderthals won't follow, but Conan does, down into a canyon with elephants at one end (why I got confused), then a river then the rose-surrounded tower. He eventually stampedes the elephants through the flowers to mash them all flat before scaling the tower. Pretty slick stuff.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What about a fallen tower on the other side of a gulch?

I might end up doing this. Like something in the tower gives a clue to the other side of the gulch. But I generally don't plan that far out ahead. I mean, for all I know my players might decide to take tap lessons and fight evil with the power of dance!

 

[diaglo]

edit: add the element of a natural disaster:

dry gulch...becomes a flash flood.

or a sandstorm rolls in and covers the tower while the PCs are inside.