Help the bad guys

[Mythmere1]

Looks rockin'.

I guess if you wanted to make it even tougher, the kobolds could trap/mine the door somehow.

Thief: "I don't recognize the script on this object."
Magic-User: "Out of way, oaf! Ah, it's written in Kobold."
Fighter: "What does it say?"
Magic-User: "Hmm. This side toward enem..."
BOOM!

That or maybe have a trap/misdirection sprung behind the party when they open the door that tends to herd them into the room/kill zone.

I'm going to move some kobolds up from the bottom to the top, replacing them with decoys. You mentioned "kill zones" and I think it looks too much like a kill zone - they might run. I want them to be tempted to charge the dais. The fact that they're silenced around the door might cause some confusion in this regard. I might even extend the silence further into the hallway so that the players just have to tell me what they do, without forming a plan...

 

[diaglo]

how did the party get here?

if the kobolds feel real threat. perhaps they have a cave in trap set further back in the dungeon.

they then attack the parties supplies and not the powerful pcs.

death by starvation or thirst.

 

[T. Foster]

The big drawback to the permanent zone of silence around the entrance to this room is that it will presumably mean the kobolds won't be able to hear the party approaching (though they may be able to see their light, if the party is carrying light). This makes it harder to justify the kobolds having set up this elaborate ambush, unless they are always in ambush formation. Better if, instead of being a permanent effect, it's something they can turn on and off (sticking with the idea that the effect predates the kobolds and they're there because of it, rather than vice versa, perhaps this room was previously a chapel or study for a monastic order and a device was installed that allows a silence spell once/day if properly activated; this device is fixed and immobile). Then the kobolds just need to get a couple rounds of warning that the party is approaching (which they can get from sentries, noisemaking boob-traps, or simply seeing the party's torchlight in the distance) to throw up their silence shield and set their ambush.

Also, while not necessarily compatible with your bunker idea, it might be fun to have a couple kobolds stationed on a ledge above the entrance, out of sight of the party (and safe from area-effect spells) with a cauldron of oil that they will dump on the party as soon as they enter the room (the party's own torches and lanterns should suffice to ignite this into an inferno, otherwise one of the kobolds can toss down a sackfull of smoldering embers...).

 

[grodog]

I like the idea of the arrow slits in the hollow dais, so why bother manning them with straw koblolds? I'd stick the straw kobolds on top as lures so that PCs charge across/into the pits, and have the real kobolds aiming for the 2nd+ rank softer targets vs. the front-rank figthers.

I love diaglo's idea of throwing green slime, and Trent's idea for murder holes with oil. For that matter, the pit traps could have arrow slits/murder holes to attack into them, or green slime on the bottom, too: no need to worry about PCs who fall in there....

 

[Mythmere1]

I like the idea of the arrow slits in the hollow dais, so why bother manning them with straw koblolds? I'd stick the straw kobolds on top as lures so that PCs charge across/into the pits, and have the real kobolds aiming for the 2nd+ rank softer targets vs. the front-rank figthers.

I love diaglo's idea of throwing green slime, and Trent's idea for murder holes with oil. For that matter, the pit traps could have arrow slits/murder holes to attack into them, or green slime on the bottom, too: no need to worry about PCs who fall in there....

The only reason they're not throwing green slime is because I don't want to add any additional monsters. I rolled up 12 kobolds, I'm sticking with 12 kobolds. The challenge is to make an incredibly weak random roll into a deadly encounter.

The straw kobolds are meant to draw fire away from real kobolds, and also to possibly draw a sleep spell away from the top of the ziggurat. The party will see 14 arrow slits, but only half of these have real kobolds. The party may waste time against the fakes.

I'm putting a mechanical "alarm" on the far side of the silenced area to warn the kobolds. The party won't hear it ring because of the silence spell. If the party miraculously avoids the pressure plate, they'll catch the kobolds out of formation.

EDIT: the reason I'm ignoring some suggestions is because I don't want this to appear as a "killer DM" encounter. The cauldron of oil, for example, boosts the lethality pretty high by using the oil itself - I'm fine with flasks of oil, but a cauldron strike me as being too much on the third level of the dungeon. Even when the monster's only 12 kobolds.

If 12 kobolds kill a party that outnumbers them, I'll be regretful -- but I'll have taunting rights for years, too.

 

[T. Foster]

So, if I'm understanding right, a pressure plate within the silenced area triggers an alarm outside of the silenced area? Yeah, that works.

 

[grodog]

If 12 kobolds kill a party that outnumbers them, I'll be regretful -- but I'll have taunting rights for years, too.

Keep us posted, Matt

 

[Mythmere1]

I will. There's a good chance (50%) that they'll hit this encounter tonight.

 

[Quartz]

Can't kobolds have witch doctors and leader-types of higher level?

 

[Mythmere1]

Can't kobolds have witch doctors and leader-types of higher level?

They can have witch doctors and such, but I wanted to leave this encounter at a straight-up 12 kobolds, minimum of magical assistance, absence of really killer traps. The defense right now has got one passive magical defence (silence) and the rest is based on a physical fortification, two mechanical traps, use of readily available substances (oil) and tactics.

The challenge I set myself was to use the randomly rolled, very weak encounter to its fullest potential. Adding a shaman and leader-types would have, for me, lessened the fun of trying to meet that challenge because it would have "changed" the monster.

Granted, it's definitely the Maginot Line of the kobold world...