Help me design an Air-Element "Dungeon"!

[gamecat]

Well... new game started two sessions ago, and already the players have a quest (The game itself is quirky: D&D weapons and armor, but modern day): a certain church which built a temple in redlands, california. Why would they put a massive temple in a sleepy town like Redlands? Simple: the temple, with the golden angelic figure topping the steeple, is the nexus of four elemental nodes. The church's operatives have misaligned the four nodes and the resulting disturbance will allow the church to call forth their diety to the face of the earth.

Thus far, the PCs (4th level now) have realigned the earth node, in big bear. Next, they've headed to yucaipa, where the air node is.

Each node requires the person who will align the node to "prove thier mettle" and also accept the burdern of the element, accepting bonuses and penalties to statistics (earth +4 inherent strength, -2 inherent Int; air +4 inherent dex, -2 inherent con; fire +4 inherent dex, -2 inherent cha; water +4 inherent con, -2 inherent int.)

Question is: What should i hit them with? before it was just 6 small earth elementals, but i want this node (and the following ones) to be a doozy.

 

[painandgreed]

A mountain or valley where the "rooms" are various ledges inhabited with flying or air traited creatures. Perhaps there'll be a path up most of the way, but I suspect that an air elemental temple will expect you to fly to it. If they can't fly, then they'll have to climb. They'll have to deal with falling as well as being attacked while climbing. Even on the ledges, they'll have to worry about getting pushed off into the abyss. Give the final air elemental(s) improved bull rush feat or something.

 

[Piratecat]

One interesting trick: use walls made from solid mist. They're translucent and can be passed through by (air) subtype creatures, but feel solid to everyone else. In fact, the whole temple can be shrouded in mist, making a fight a very claustrophobic and disturbing proposition.

One idea may be to take your favorite monster (say, a destrachan with its sonic attack) and act like it's made from solid air. Make it invisible and turn the sonic attack into the sound of raging winds. That'll freak out the meta-gamers nicely.

 

[gamecat]

hm... cat, i like that idea... mephits mocking the pcs while entering/exiting walls... heh heh...

Im going to have the entrance of the node a hidden stairway at the top of the administration wing of Crafton Hills Community College

leading up stairs of solid mist.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Hmmm, well yuo could use Greek style architecture, except have all of it be in air, and lots of open space. You could also have floating platforms with enemies on them that the PCs have to cross without magic to get to the other side. If they use magic they will just keep going off forever into air.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Oh. ... Heh heh . I thought, for a moment, that that was the Air Force Academy.

Which would be oddly appropriate.

 

[RangerWickett]

If this were a video game (which, of course, it oughta be), then you'd want to make the air temple grant things the ability to fly within its confines. That should make things unique.

 

[gamecat]

Hmmm, well yuo could use Greek style architecture, except have all of it be in air, and lots of open space. You could also have floating platforms with enemies on them that the PCs have to cross without magic to get to the other side. If they use magic they will just keep going off forever into air.

That sounds like something out of Mega Man... I kinda like it.

If this were a video game (which, of course, it oughta be), then you'd want to make the air temple grant things the ability to fly within its confines. That should make things unique.

The game has a certain Streets of Rage/Double Dragon feel, with a slightly more magic feel to it =D.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

That sounds like something out of Mega Man... I kinda like it.

Ummm, cause it sort of is.

Airman's stage in Mega Man 2.

Well, not the architecture, but the enemies on platforms part.

Heh, I am glad you like it though.

 

[Woas]

Oh oh! I made one of these before.

Okay.. so:

-Party crests a hill to discover on the horizon a settlement that has black smoke pouring from it.
-Party makes its way toward town to see if they can help. As they are moving through the farm land that is around the settlement, they are attacked by Straw Golems (Scare-Crow Golems).
-One of the PCs unfortunetly dies (Sorry Evan...) during the skirmish. Some 'scouts' from the settlement who were keeping tabs on what the Straw Golems where doing in secret came to the parties aid and helped them back to the settlement.
-Once at the settlement, the party discoveres that the people who live there are actually set up a 'ring of fire' around the settlement to ward off any attacking Straw Golems and was the source of the black smoke. (It wasn't that the town was burning down.)
-Through some investigation, the party discoveres the druid behind the straw golems. Basically it was a boiled down "European Settlers vs. Native American" conflict. The druid was here first and the settlers were slowly destroying her grove.
-The druid never ment for the Straw Golems to kill anyone. (The party finds out that they were not told the whole truth. The PC was the first death. Previous people were just beat up real bad, but never killed by the Straw Golems.) So the Druid lets the players in on some Info she knows. In the mountains far away there is Something or Someperson who can bring their friend back from the dead.
-Enter ancient Sky Temple/Dungeon.

Around the peak of the highest mountain to the west of this settlement was a cloud doughnut that never went away. No one really knew why though. These clouds look like normal ordinary fluffy clouds.

What they really were was concealment of a huge open air temple.
Under the temple on the mountain was a clan of Cloud Giants. The party entered their small little community and befriended one of the giants. They used their natural Levitation ability, had the party climb on him, and he shipped them up to the cloud. The party discovered the concealed temple in the clouds and entered. The building was made out of what I called "Cloudstone". Basically it was stone that was incredibly light and could 'float' in mid air. If anyone stood in one place for too long, they would actually 'melt' through it. (like for an hour. so no resting )

As for architecture. I discribed very big, opened aired rooms. Many rooms only had 3 walls. The 4th wall is more like the 'entrance' to a roman/greek temple that faced outward toward the sky. Other rooms were very rounded. Domed ceiling, sometimes even dome floors. (who needs a floor other than for astetics when you fly constantly?) There was also a few rooms that were carved into the mountain sumit, level with the temple.(This is where the genie was)

There was lots of wind traps and anti-ranged weapon situations as wind blew all around (since it passed through the Cloudstone). Plus some cold subdual damage.

As for creatures found in the temple? Lets see, I had Air mephits, cold mephits, air elementals, an air drake (from Draconomicon), and one Belker. In the end, the players found a Genie who granted them a wish.. which was to bring their friend back from the dead.

Hope some of that helped.