Help me design a Dungeon! Fallen dwarven cistern

[frankthedm]

I need help! I am designing a dwarf made dungeon and need help finishing and stocking it. No scale so far, this is just concept stage.

1. contact was lost with a cistern outpost that had already had large disagreements with main dwarf kingdom. [ call it rockhome if you want] The king under the moutain more or less said they could exile themselves and it was thought they did.

2. A potent critter broke through the bottom of the cistern [lets say a underkraken with a host of deep ones ~ kuatoa or whatever you wanna call malignant fish dudes. The deep ones had potent necromancy on thier side and won a decided and swift victory.

3. While powerfull, the deep ones really can't hold all the fort so to speak and many other inabitants have also moved in [orcs, shadow elves [drow and less magical evil underelves lumped together]. Not to mention there are a few haunted layers where the broken and restless spirits of the dwarves still try to go about thier "lives".

 

[frankthedm]

BTW this is still the brainstorming phase, no scale is set. Not sure how many levels, i need a lot of help.

I think passage between levels will either be a spiral central railing overlooking the wate, briges that went at up and down angles over the cistern or ramp just inside the main circle building area .

 

[frankthedm]

any help?

 

[Dirigible]

*I'm guessing the side-cisterns are very stagnant, as there doesn't apepar to be any in- or outflow? Oozes aquatic green slimes? Giant mozzies?

* If the deep-ones share the same stats as kua-toa, check out P-Kitty's story hour and plots & NPC threads.

* Having the kraken's tentacles rise up all round and attack while the PCs are on the bridge would be tres cinamatic.

 

[frankthedm]

*I'm guessing the side-cisterns are very stagnant, as there doesn't apepar to be any in- or outflow? Oozes aquatic green slimes? Giant mozzies?

* If the deep-ones share the same stats as kua-toa, check out P-Kitty's story hour and plots & NPC threads.

* Having the kraken's tentacles rise up all round and attack while the PCs are on the bridge would be tres cinamatic.

Side ones were more of a waste run off than water resuviors. left one sometimes gets fresh water,but is not as clean as prime. the right one is pretty bad and that sounds like a plan.

Stats- some are as weak as a human while others range from bugbear to ogre sizes in this area. The actual fishfolk i am using here get bigger as they age and only die if "killed violent-like." so advancing by levels and HD are both options. thanks for the suggestion of PK's stuff.

Good idea for the kraken fight-though the party going here will be lower level and i was hoping the pc's outsmart it rather than outright combat it. There is a very real chance that if the group proves to be too dangerous the kraken will leave the deep ones to thier own devices. [ dropping a nasty enough poison into the main cistern IS a viable option as is roleplaying and convincing a dwarf leader to send out a team of assaunt diggers to reck the place and drop destruction into the pit.] -if the krakens improved grab kicks off, the pc is likely dead - pulled into water means weapon is 1/2 damage in most situations, to say nothing of the krakens damage output against that poor character.


Thanks Deriigible.

The way i was concieving this dungeon was the old standby of depth = danger where lower you go the worse things get. while the pcs are low level to start i was hoping to make this the campainge dungeon. The main well center area will be safer than the areas within other than it being high traffic.

other hostiles

A group of demon tainteds orcs and evil under-elves has also found thier way into the cistern inhabiting some areas- bad blood abounds

A grouping of either lizard folk[includes troglodites] or serpent people hold the fallen temple to moradin and nearby area for the heat of the forge. Given fuel from the dying prayers of the last dwarven priest, it will not extinguinsh untill the last invader is cast out.

Restless spirits of the dwarves will be a wildcard. Most will attack, but some may be put to rest or put to use attacking the other creatures in the cistern.

Should the Deep ones lose the kraken and are given time, a shoggoth* may be called forth from a distant deep one oupost.

* A big loathsome bloblike creature. sort of like a advanced shapeshifting black pudding with eyes and mouths and a disposition slighty uglier than the rest of it.

 

[Buttercup]

There is a very real chance that if the group proves to be too dangerous the kraken will leave the deep ones to thier own devices. [ dropping a nasty enough poison into the main cistern IS a viable option as is roleplaying and convincing a dwarf leader to send out a team of assaunt diggers to reck the place and drop destruction into the pit.]

What if you turned this idea upside down? What if the water were cursed or desecrated, and the way to get the kracken (and possibly other evil sorts) to leave was to remove the curse or consecrate the water? And what if that consecration let the undead dwarves go to their eternal rest in the arms of their god?

 

[frankthedm]

What if you turned this idea upside down? What if the water were cursed or desecrated, and the way to get the kracken (and possibly other evil sorts) to leave was to remove the curse or consecrate the water?

The kraken, due to how tainted it is, would be unable to bear the concecrated water [if done to the potecy oof holy water], however that would take a LOT of power to conecrate the water and then prevent the effect from being diluted by the Undersea inlets the kraken came throu originally. I might toss a vein of truesilver [ mithral] to make such a thing possible.


Thanks for the concecration idea Buttercup

Any suggestions for the top levels' map and layout? my pc's may arive there this afternoon......

 

[Piratecat]

I really like the idea of the outside central stair overlooking the water. You may also wish to have a waterfall tumbling down through the middle of the cistern, drained from ground water above; it would help balance out water losses to gravity and underground rivers.

 

[Dirigible]

Thanks Deriigible.

Sober up before posting, mes ami

 

[frankthedm]

Sober up before posting, mes ami

sorry, it was way past my bedtime when i typed that.



well things went pretty much as i expected- they were hankering for combat after dealing with dwarven politics for 2 sesions that went roleplay heavy- too bad they kept splitting apart in what is a VERY traditional dungeon crawl. two medium spiders [ habitat ceiling- main prey those involded with other fights in the cistern warzone] managed to attack lone pc's 3 times between the pair. the wizard even got poisoned to K.O. and was later almost dragged away by one spider because the the pc's guarding him were involved with missle fire against orcs~ that the dwarf had alerted to the party's activity by wandering off on his own.

The pc's are in the top level being chased by a 'small' [ barely huge ]behemoth spawn-quadrapedal burrower subtype. [left sesion off on a cliff hanger] An alchemist fire trap the party set for passers by irked it. [cracked flask hid in orc bodies]. The trap was placed there as a deterant for those who wanted to disturb the players attempt at resting in the dungeon. The behemoth had left clues to its presence in the area BTW.

They fled into a giant roach [8 footers] habited side passage. The roaches got a natural 1 on thier initive roll [ which IMG means that fate is about to make your fight ... less favorable] so when the behemoth blindly attacked through the wall the roaches were the first victims as the pc's did a swift about face down the corridors other direction.