Help me enworld, I need sewer encounters!

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

You know what's better than a gelatinous cube? A gelatinous cube with friends! Have the cube contain a couple of undead. When the party approaches the cube, all they might see is skeletons floating in mid-air. They'll fire at them or something, only to see their arrows disappear or seem to pause before they hit them. If you're lucky, the party fighter might do something really funny, like try to sheild-bash them. (This happened the first time a DM did this to our party. The fighter sheild-bashed a gelatinous cube. Hee hee!) When the party kills the cube the skeletons go to work, trying to kill the PCs.

Or, as a twist, have the cube contain one or more animated weapons. The party just sees a floating sword or axe or something, and by the time they figure out what's going on the cube will run over them. Those that kill the cube now have to contend with some violent animate swords.

 

[Maerdwyn]

1) Keep in mind what sewers are therefore in the first place. If (admittedly juvenile) humor has a place in the game, the PCs may have to watch out for "deposits" dumped into the sewer from citizens above. More practically, such deposits are sure to call the sewer's inhabitants who feed on the stuff, be it rotten food, or other material.

2) Mostly or Totally submerged areas - characters may need to remove armor to swim through, or figure some way to breathe despite a lack of a water breathing spell (steal a page from the 1st ed Slavers module series, and provide scroll cases for breathing tubes, air tight wine bladders that could hold air for a few rounds, etc.) These encounters could get really deadly for 1st levl characters if they includd too much in the way of aquatic monsters on top of the the physical difficuly of the water, however. Maybe the pool provides a hidden escape route in the face of a relatively powerful, but land-bound enemy?

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Small Poop elemental!

AR

 

[Graywolf-ELM]

Here's an idea I was thinking of using:

Coins and small treasures are disappearing from peoples homes. Sometimes there are trails of dampness leading to sewer entries, other times, no trace is found.

The city sewers are home to sewer pixies. The ride and train sewer rats. Cause problems around the city, harrass city workers. They lay traps, do pranks, and otherwise disrupt the smooth functioning of the city sewers, as well as steal from residents of the city upper side.

Standard pixies, without the ability of flight, but can affect their mounts as human spellcasters can with spells, touch attacks, and other spells can affect the sewer rats as well as the pixie.

The sewer rats are trained to work together, and under the direction of the pixies. I don't have my MM handy, or I'd whip up some modifications and special uses, and tactics.

 

[Buttercup]

Guptha the rat catcher. A slightly pathetic half goblin... (stolen from someone on these boards - Buttercup IIRC).

Yup. And Guptha will offer to act as cook for your party. He makes a mean grilled rat....

 

[frankthedm]

Crocodile-scorpion crossbreed, originally flushed when the creator thought the creatures sting venom was inneffective. The toxin creates a random effect in the victim on a failed fort save, [best chosen based on campain style, example below]

1-5% petrification
6-10% 1d4 con damage a round until dead
11-20% random limb becomes tentacle until dispelled [1d4+str bonus damage arm, 1d6+ str bonus for leg]
21-30% Paralysis for 1 minute
31-45% stunned 1d4 rounds
46-60% Banefull polymorphed into frog
61-70 fast heal 2 HP round for 10 rounds
71-75 +4 enhancement to strength for 3 minutes
76-80 +4 enhancement to dex for 3 minutes
81-85 +4 enhancement to con for 3 minutes
86-00 Confusion for 1 minute

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Dire albino sewer gators! (No city is complete without one...)

Effluent filled cellars where the city just used existing areas rather than creating a fresh tunnel. (London used to have many of them...)
A cult of vampires or degenerate mindflayers using the sewers for a means of transversing the city unseen. In the case of the mindflayers they might even have a spawning pool... (Eeeuuuch!)
Sudden dropoffs hidden 'neath the muck.
A big ball of hair/filth/debris containing coins. (a tosheroon.)
A section of sewer filled with chains & hooks from which several rotted bodies are suspended. And one that seems very fresh indeed...
Poisonous gas. (Stinkdamp or sulpher dioxide, not good at all, at all...)

The Auld Grump

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Ok, weird and zany (though cliched probably):

The group is trudging through the sewer when they meet another group of 4 or 5 adventurers. This group appears to be very low level, their weapons appear to be made of wood, cloth padding(!), and very cheap metals; their armor looks very shoddy and possibly self-made. They speak in a foreign tongue unknown to anyone in the group. Depending on how you want the encounter to go they either appear lost, scared, and frustrated, or else they seem excited, aggressive but oddly friendly, and high spirited.

The former group is likely to approach the party with relief initially until they realize that the weapons and/or races are not costumes at which point they flee down a nearby tunnel screaming and eerily fading out into nothing. The latter group will gleefully "attack" the group with padded arrows and beanbags while very gleefully shouting and hooting, then quickly flee down a nearby dead end passage and through the solid wall at the end of it, insanely laughing and shouting the entire time. No matter how much searching or inspection (magical or otherwise) is performed, no secret door or passage can ever be found at the dead end.

I dunno man...I've done some bastardly things to groups before, but throwing LARPers at them is just *evil*

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Ok, weird and zany (though cliched probably):

The group is trudging through the sewer when they meet another group of 4 or 5 adventurers. This group appears to be very low level, their weapons appear to be made of wood, cloth padding(!), and very cheap metals; their armor looks very shoddy and possibly self-made. They speak in a foreign tongue unknown to anyone in the group. Depending on how you want the encounter to go they either appear lost, scared, and frustrated, or else they seem excited, aggressive but oddly friendly, and high spirited.

The former group is likely to approach the party with relief initially until they realize that the weapons and/or races are not costumes at which point they flee down a nearby tunnel screaming and eerily fading out into nothing. The latter group will gleefully "attack" the group with padded arrows and beanbags while very gleefully shouting and hooting, then quickly flee down a nearby dead end passage and through the solid wall at the end of it, insanely laughing and shouting the entire time. No matter how much searching or inspection (magical or otherwise) is performed, no secret door or passage can ever be found at the dead end.

I dunno man...I've done some bastardly things to groups before, but throwing LARPers at them is just *evil*

 

[Hand of Evil]

Slugs and leeches! Big ones, mean ones, nasty ones.