Help prep the evil level 9 wizard's tower

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Heh. Riffing on the suggested transmutations and source material ... the first trap they encounter should not only shrink them, but turn their skin blue and armor white.

 

[Stormonu]

A roguish, talking skull ("Pssst. k'mere. Want to know where G keeps the good stuff? Yeah, figured you did. Tell you what, carry me out of here, and I'll show you where its hidden on the way out. No, YOU get your hands off me. I want HER to carry me. No, not under the arm. Both hands. So I can look at her"). It is designed to waste the character's time until either wandering guardians show up or it starts screaming "intruders! thieves!".

 

[radja]

the wizard is gone, and is based on Gargamel? Then you just have to make sure the cat is home. Azrael is always home when the smurfs sneak into Gargamel's house. A shrink trap is definately in order so that azrael can chase the PCs around gargamel's workshop. Use dire tiger stats for Azrael for the battle of the now shrunken PCs against the cat.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Well, the interior of the tower should be grungy and dilapidated, for one thing. To go for the smurfs feel, I would use every opportunity to confirm the wizard as a power out of their league. Maybe show them the details of the deal between Khenemet and a demon, and let the PCs know for a fact that his powers of transmutation are beyond what they can muster themselves. Let the pcs experience the horror of learning the fate of Khenemet's other victims and yet being unable to rescue them. Get creative here; what they discover should be unpleasant enough that they sort of want to get out of the tower, despite the potentially great wealth. Things like a wire drawing die that turns princesses into silver wire. Or a magical contract between Khenemet and a friend of the PCs that stipulates if the friend breaks the terms of the contract he or she will be turned into butter. Or a too-large-to-move model of the local friendly castle, that allows the holder to zap a single person standing on the battlements with lightning.

Despite the wizard having fled, nothing they discover in the tower should ease their mind or leave them feeling better off than before.

Personally I wouldn't go with the shrink trap--seems a little on the nose and comical for my tastes. However, something like the wizard's maze in dying earth with lots of little bones of shrink victims that were hunted down by the cat would be in order, I think.

Also, it kind of goes beyond the scope of your question, but if this is an interlude between campaigns, this is the time when you really want to raise the stakes. Maybe they find a list of beings Khenemet has grudges against, with the names crossed off to indicate that he's gotten his revenge. (And what if the PC's names are crossed off too? What revenge has Khenemet enacted that they aren't yet aware of?)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A roguish, talking skull ("Pssst. k'mere. Want to know where G keeps the good stuff? Yeah, figured you did. Tell you what, carry me out of here, and I'll show you where its hidden on the way out. No, YOU get your hands off me. I want HER to carry me. No, not under the arm. Both hands. So I can look at her"). It is designed to waste the character's time until either wandering guardians show up or it starts screaming "intruders! thieves!".

Hmmm. I'm not super hung-up on being able to work out how an NPC does something, but this still seems to be beyond the power of a level 9 magic-user/wizard/whatever you want to call it now.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Personally I wouldn't go with the shrink trap--seems a little on the nose and comical for my tastes. However, something like the wizard's maze in dying earth with lots of little bones of shrink victims that were hunted down by the cat would be in order, I think.

I like that a lot.

Also, it kind of goes beyond the scope of your question, but if this is an interlude between campaigns, this is the time when you really want to raise the stakes. Maybe they find a list of beings Khenemet has grudges against, with the names crossed off to indicate that he's gotten his revenge. (And what if the PC's names are crossed off too? What revenge has Khenemet enacted that they aren't yet aware of?)

Already in the works. They're going to discovered he has a detailed family tree on one of the characters, including more information than even the player knows about his extended family. Oh, and another character will discover a creepy sketch of her little sister with a magic mouth spell on it that coos sweet nothings to the viewer.

He's already the NPC they love to hate, but by the time they finally run into him again in the sequel -- in the middle of a major city where they can't just cut him down in cold blood -- they're going to be foaming at the mouth.

 

[darjr]

someone told me about a trap he had with mirrors. But in this case I'd use portraits of some horrible monster.

When the first PC touches or looks closely at the monster in the portrait it turns into a portrait of them, and they into the monster.

Something that has an aura attack and is mute with no hands should do the trick.

Or you could actually have the switch occur, or have two portraits, each does one of the above.

 

[Stormonu]

Hmmm. I'm not super hung-up on being able to work out how an NPC does something, but this still seems to be beyond the power of a level 9 magic-user/wizard/whatever you want to call it now.

Fair enough, no spell comes to mind in that range. I guess I've always just made what sounds cool and not worry much about how it was made (til characters try and reproduce it).

 

[Quartz]

Did he build the tower himself or did he inherit it? If the latter, there might be some rather high level traps. And perhaps the original master of the tower is still around? Perhaps as a not-unfriendly demilich - the skull mentioned above.