I will add an idea. If you do the same, we all win.

[clockworkjoe]

Idea: The Dracolich has a lair. The lair is not the typical lair of a dragon. Rather, it is a series of large levitating platforms. In the middle of a permanent mega-tempest. The platforms are enchanted to keep out the wind and fury of the platforms so the dracolich's treassure is quite safe. However, It is pretty hard to find the platforms as they are in the middle of the storm and the dracolich has several bound tempest and air elementals to guard the platforms.

The lair can actually be a dungeon for adventurers as the platforms have special enchantments on them that actually move the platforms. Each platform has a complex puzzle on it that has several solutions possible. Answer wrong and you trigger a trap. Answer right and the platform moves to another platform which triggers a wall of force that connects the two. Thus, a dungeon of sorts. However, it is actually mazelike and quite hard to find the dracolich's secret platform. Characters can also jump off and try to fly to the right platform but the storm, numerous elementals and the magical concealment of the platforms (conditional invisibility and anti scrying spells) make that difficult but possible.

 

[Piratecat]

The noble (and evil) dao, genies of the elemental plane of earth, live for the most part in a series of chasms called the Great Dismal Delve. When you can walk through stone as these creatures can, what might serve as a wall for you?

Perhaps air.

The PCs must travel to a Dao palace and travel withiin the airy walls themselves as they move about trying to find the gem that they must bring home. Like rats in a mansion, they must try to negotiate the incredibly dangerous palace without being caught.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Each of the platforms has a symbol on it. Stepping on a symbol has no effect, but stepping on two symbols simultaneously has a magical effect.

As an example, if someone steps on the air symbol and the fire symbol, they get hit by a firestorm effect as wind whips up the fire. Not every combo will have an effect, however.

The dracolich has memorized each symbol, and only it can step on a symbol without activating it, if it so chooses.

Hint: there's a negative energy symbol *evil grin*

 

[diaglo]

Idea: The birth of a new creature.

The influence of the fields of magic and the constant regenerative nature of nearby trolls/ogre magi and their waste has caused a pool of primordial ooze to form.

from the hair and fingernails and other nonliving matter of the trolls/ogre magi a terror is born.

a whiplash. a long tendril of hair with sharp razor like cetae. it regenerates like the former hosts and can stretch like a trollrope (in the Faerun supplements). it is resistant to many forms of magic. and feeds on magic to survive.

 

[blargney the second]

IDEA: The PCs find a treasure map that leads to a cave that has been carved deep into a cliffside by the relentless pounding of the sea. The entrance is only available when the tide is all the way out, at which point the cave's walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with purple starfish.

Progressing back through the grotto, a stench of human offal and garbage becomes increasingly worse. A natural cavern widens out a ways in, and there is a shallow pool of mingled saltwater and sewage. An angler ooze (Creature Collection) dwells here, using its bioluminescence to lure the animals brought in by the tide. The bones of the person who made the treasure map can be found with a diligent search.

Out the back of the cavern, another passage continues farther in, eventually leading to a second natural cavern. A giant purple starfish resides here, eating the choicest bits that come out of the sewer tunnel that empties into this cavern. It stands on three legs and attacks with its other two legs, drawing prey into its gaping mouth. A short tentacle protrudes from the body with several eyes. (It's an otyugh!)

A metal-bound treasure chest is hidden in a corner of the room, and it containts a mass of coins that have all become tarnished by the saltwater. They're fused together into one enormous block. Fuse a magic item into the whole shebang for added PC frustration.

A wizards' college/tower is attached to the sewers, and its alchemical labs drain into the sewers. That's what caused the giant starfish to mutate and the angler ooze to exist. Here's the fun part: mutate the PCs! I'm using the mutations from College Roomies from Hell as inspiration:

PC #1 gets laser vision that gives him headaches.
PC #2 grows a freaky eye in the palm of his hand.
PC #3's arm transforms into a tentacle that disgusts most people.

-blarg

 

[Quick Leaf]

A gnomish stronghold in a mountain is made up of three levels, each enchanted such that floor is always gravitationally down (even if the entire level were to be flipped 90 degrees). Above and below these three levels are caverns holding some experiments gone wrong. When infiltrated, the gnomes sound a retreat to the control room. The three levels CAN actually be spun from this control room (perhaps pushed by earth elementals living within the rock), so level one can be connected to level two or the danger! room, and so on. Of course, a pass through rock spell would bypass the gnome's trickery.

Mapped out it looks like this...

--danger!--
--level one--
--entrance-- --level two-- --control room--
--level three--
--danger!--

 

[howandwhy99]

How about something extremely fantastical?

In an ancient forest, a lost colony of some sentient race can be found living in huts (routinely) created from giant elephantear leaves. Being about 10' to 15' in diameter, the leaves work just as well as normal rafts and actually float down when tossed off of a cliff. Create a situation where the PC's are attacked from across the river while fishing/resting and you have a great ranged combat while running rapids and flying down waterfalls.

 

[derelictjay]

You have a village of goblins, but not your ordinary goblins, these goblins are very intelligent and highly magical. But its how they got so intelligent thats so sinister, goblins, known for their high birthrates, are sacrificing sentient creatures before a goblin child is born and each child born after the sacrifice gains an intelligence bonus as well as some preordained spell-ability.

If the PCs can't find the village, the goblin factory keeps on churning.

 

[clockworkjoe]

Good ideas, everyone! i especially like piratecat's idea. A reverse dungeon of sorts.

Idea: A near epic barbarian (level 16-20) fought a mighty foe with his friends in some forsaken outer plane. The foe's bodyguard sundered the barbarian's magical weapons. The barbarian was nearly killed with a powerful attack, which triggered a contingency placed on him and gated him to a church in the prime material plane. The clerics there healed him and then threw him, as they did not know the fate of his friends nor did they care. He wandered back to his home town and waited for his friends to pick him up.

And waited.

And waited.

And still waits to this day. He sold a few minor magical items and took up permanent residence in the adventurer's inn. He lost his will to adventure when he realized that his friends lost their battle and would not return. He began dranking heavily, and did not take up adventuring again as he did not want to risk dying alone in the wilds without his friends to bury him.

However, he began buying maps. Treasure maps, maps to lost cities, and maps promising fantastic riches. The poor barbarian could barely afford some of them and he could not read many of them, but he was compelled to buy them. They represented hope, a promise of possible glories and adventure that kept his soul alive.

The citizens of the town left the barbarian alone, as he was still a mighty foe in combat and helped repel an orcish invasion a few years back. But now, the barbarian has seen a young group of would be adventurers look for future glories and adventure.

A group that might need a treasure map.

A group that might need an advisor, a patron of sorts. The barbarian thinks between his drinks. He thinks of what words to speak, of what advice he can impart on young foolish sellswords and spellslingers. And what price he would ask in return. Perhaps just that they might return to him one day and tell him their story of wonders and battles won. And if they prove worthy, he might just ask him the question he would sell his soul to know.

"What happened to my friends?"

 

[Wycen]

How about one of the enchanted platforms has malfunctioned and a sliver trapped debris fused with the warped maelstrom has become trapped by the sigil on a platform. The trapped creature is a sword spirit, from the Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix 2, (I don't know if it has been converted for 3E yet) or some other warped elemental, maybe a water weird, but made of air.