Help me defend an artifact!

[green slime]

Well, as a temple to the lord of the undead....

I'd have the actual temple with some kind of blood trap. Once an someone collapses dead/dying on the floor (or when blood is spillt), more blood flows in down the walls, eventually the room will be completely flooded. Adding a sense of urgency to the battle.

During the temple battle, those creatures defeated, collapse into the blood and are rejuvenated/made into another form of undead, perhaps as a create undead or create greater undead?

Instead of Silence, why not a steady moaning of tortured souls? the effect would be to force the players to make Concentration checks to cast spells with vocal components over the din.

 

[Snoweel]

A variation on your teleport trap would be to teleport the players into a fetid swamp with an opaque green sky.

After battling their way past (whatever - I'm thinking of that giant undead maggot in FF), they discover that the swamp exists in a one-kilometre radius circle enclosed with magic-resistant emerald walls that slope sharply to a point at the "ceiling", a mere 200 metres off the swamp "floor".

Of course, enough time spent watching the movement of the strange shapes outside this pocket dimension reveals that the PCs are trapped within the emerald on the dagger's pommel.

Off the bat I can't think of an exciting escape plan - maybe they need to tunnel down into the dagger's handle or find a trap door or something?

 

[Dougal DeKree]

You could trap the false dagger so that the room becomes sealed and filled with a liquid - let's take blood. As soon as this happens the hidden blood golems take action - and they are hard to detect i'd wager, plus underwater rules would apply to the fight. Of course casting spells is hard without air.

Another option would be to combine the liquid with PC's antimagic field. Fighting here with some underwater-creatures and having to make the decision between fighting and battering down the gate to avoid drowning will surely be nice, too.

 

[Piratecat]

Of course, enough time spent watching the movement of the strange shapes outside this pocket dimension reveals that the PCs are trapped within the emerald on the dagger's pommel.

Sagiro did something similar to us, and it was EXTREMELY effective. Use this trick and you can give them encounters while inside the pommel along with more traditional encounters in the normal dungeon once they get out. Amusingly, if they get out and grab the dagger and try to teleport out, they'll end up right back inside unless they can get out of the complex first.

 

[diaglo]

Hello ... Orcus... Undead....

another teleport deterent... wraiths, spectres, ghosts in the floor.. don't forget the incorporeal. with levels of rogue.

 

[Shadeus]

Ooohhh, into the pommel of the dagger. Nice! Instead of going into the weapon itself, maybe a crystal sphere near in or even in the altar room. I like the whole teleporting to the altar room and ending up in an entirely different location.

As far as the altar room itself, the altar could be made of stone but intricately carved to look like a pile of bones and skulls. The top of the altar should be darkened with blood stains and thin grooves in its top to easily drain blood off its surface. The grooves drain into stone containers shaped like skulls; one on each of the four sides of the altar.

I like the idea of the altar being high. But 100' is too high. I would have a pit or a moat around the altar with a single, narrow walkway leading up to the altar. The pit could even be filled with undead that constantly moan and wretch. The altar itself could rest on a platform 30' above the ground level and maybe 80' above the pit bottom (exact dimensions are up to you).

A bloated statue of Orcus is carved out of the wall behind the altar so it looks like the demon prince is emerging from the wall itself. The wall could even be painted or a mosiac that depicts whatever Orcus' home plane looks like. Also, the walls around the temple could be decorated with pictures of undead and demon ripping apart little children and other acts of evil.

****

Now it wasn't clear to me if the dagger was there to be looked at or if the temple of Orcus actually uses it. If it is just there to be protected and never touched, the idea of a fake is an easy one to pull off. If they use it in rituals and such, then it might be more difficult.

If _I_ were the temple of Orcus and I wanted to secure an artifact, and it if was within my power, I would put it in an alcove that could only be opened by channeling negative energy. Basically a rebuke undead attempt. This way the good guys, who _usually channel positive energy (turning) would be harder pressed to succeed. But that might be too much over the top. Of course, it might force them to be creative like using rock to mud on the altar to get around the divine lock.

 

[ironmani]

Ok I'll jump in now. I like the blood idea but try this on for size. Have hordes of regular low level cultist come to defend the dagger. They'll get cut down easy, and as they die have them gurgle something like, "I give my life for the guardian." or something. Tell the PCs if they happen to look down, none of the blood is pooling, it is insted flowing across the room to an alcove. After the fight is done and as they grip the dagger, have a blood elemental (Think a water elemental made from blood.) storm out and attack the PCs. Think of the nightmares they'll have being engulfed by all that blood, drowning in it. Plus if any of them get cut and bleed, it could possible take control of them for a round or two. Well how does that sound?

 

[Endur]

Temple Defensive Spells

Forbiddance, Guards and Wards, Mordenkainen's Secure Sanctum, Unhallow

Desecrated Undead (at creation time) (extra hit points, +2 to die rolls).

 

[Will]

Well, it's too late, but one thing you should consider is that an underground temple should have a thin layer of lead all around it.

Completely blocks all scrying attempts, period.

 

[der_kluge]

Put the dagger in an anti-life shell, surrounded by an anti-magic zone (in the shape of the donut, to avoid dispelling the anti-life shell), protected by two iron golems.

That should sufficiently annoy the heck out of them.