Schismatrix Dungeon

[pensiv]

traps, lots of traps. The body itself will have defenses for foreign bodies touching areas they're not supposed to or going through "doors" the wrong way--most valves, etc. only allow flow in one direction, that's a great thing to play off of.

 

[fourthmensch]

There was a post not too long ago about a living airship - a lot of material in that thread could be applied to this. I can't search so if someone could look up (Title: Living Airship) that would be great.

Hey, thanks micr0c0sm and P-cat! That thread has some really great ideas.

The problem with the dungeon population was solved by some of the backstory, once I bothered to develop it. Basically the dungeon is an offshoot of Neth that has been randomly shifting through the planes. How is this accomplished, you ask? Well I have no idea, really. I figured that since Neth likes to absorb people's consciousness and memory, maybe she "ate" a powerful wizard and learned the secret of planewalking. Whatever the case, the dungeon ("Neth's Child") doesn't know why she is randomly shifting around the planes either; she is simply lost, scared, and confused.

So most of the dungeon population consists of weird planar denizens that have become trapped within the dungeon because the new planes aren't hospitable to them, or because they've made a nice lair somewhere and would prefer to stay. Some of them include an air element displacer beast (in the lungs), a salamander (near the heart), a grey ooze (accessible via a hidden sphincter trap into the stomach), some wandering "immune system" creatures (mostly homebrew weird creatures), a psionic fihyr (which has hijacked the brain and is feeding off of nightmares), and the big baddies, a kaorti cyst (with some pseudonatural thralls--bladelings, manes, leapords, and a quasit) that is planning on establishing a foothold in the Prime. I could just call this adventure "Fun with templates".

And then there is the half-demon that the characters are chasing, which brought them to this weird dungeon in the first place. He is trapped in Neth too, just trying to survive as his comrades get slowly chewed up or converted into thralls. There is a little matter of him being a sanctified half-fiend, and a paladin to boot, but that's for the PCs to deal with...

I gave some thought to the actual ecology of this more or less random assortment of weird creatures. Each of them has a particular lair and has been feeding on the other denizens of the dungeon, so there is a pretty antagonistic relationship between most of them. Particularly with the kaorti, who have been sending patrols to convert the other creatures into their thralls. So, if the PCs are smart, they can actually manipulate many of the creatures into fighting each other. The more time they take, however, the more thralls the kaorti are able to make to send against them.

Some suggestions I have incorporated: valve traps that flush the PCs in one direction or another, the weaker flesh golems (which i figure can look like those cool doctor's office posters of the Man With No Skin), and some internal cleansing creatures.

I've had a lot of fun designing this dungeon, so thanks again for all the suggestions and ideas!