The Temple of Time

[thol]

DM in need of help...

I have a party (around 3rd level) who last left off at the entrance to a long buried (beneath a marsh) temple to the God of Time, which has recently risen and stands at the edge of a lake. They already fought some frogmen who live in the lake, as well as inhabit most of the third level which is still flooded.

There are orcs on the second level who found a way in via an old escape tunnel. They are searching for an amulet that legend has it was kept by the priests. There is a large number of undead on the first level as a result of the ancient battle that ruined the temple (and the city itself), both of orcs and the priests who once lived there.

So, there is no shortage of monster encounters.

My problem is this: I am really lacking on what other things they might encounter in a ruined temple of a God of Time. Traps, puzzles, Time related rooms and miscellany.

The fourth and fifth level will have the real goodies, such as the fabled Chamber of Sand, and the legendary portal used by Yog the Wise to escape the orloc hordes in the madness after the fall of the Minotaur Empire.

 

[Crothian]

how about encounters from the past? Other people from other times also exploring the temple?

 

[thol]

That's a cool idea... shadows of the past.

It works well with one of the plots for the future. The PCs will only be able to explore so far without the key that will allow them access to the Inner Sanctums. They will end up returning there sometime later at a higher level after some other adventures.

Once they reach the Inner Sanctums, the plan is to throw them into the past a short time before the fall of the Minotaur Empire. Their mission will be to retrieve an artifact that is needed in the future, but has been lost for a thousand years in their time.

 

[Crothian]

You can also show flashes from the past, they enter a room and see it how it was orgianlly done and then in a few minutes they witness 1000 years pass by and see the room slowly decay to its present condition

 

[the Jester]

how about encounters from the past?

Or the future- it might be interesting to give the pcs a laser pistol 'wand' as loot; just have it run out of 'charges' eventually...

 

[saethone]

the future woulnd't be to do-able, as theres no way to tell what future will play itself out. maybe the PCs will end up destroying the world, then the fact they walked in there and saw a laser pistol wouldn't make much sense

 

[Jdvn1]

I was in a similar castle once and there were these... cases. That held bodies that looked like they were in suspended animation. You break the glass facing of the case and you release the person from temporal stasis.

 

[Tom Cashel]

You could have time flow differently (varying rates, varying directions) in different areas of the temple. How would the PCs perceive time flowing backward? Sideways?

You could have the PCs seeing themselves only moments before, or "remembering" what a fellow party member is about to say.

You could slaughter them all in some horrible fashion, and then cut away to their PCs watching it happen--turns out it was just a vision. Possible future? Who can say?

You could pit the PCs against versions of themselves from an alternate timeline.

 

[Stone Angel]

maybe things they do can affect the enviroment. When a lever is pulled a formerly collapsed bridge remakes itself, or certain things go backward or forward at an accelerated rate. Maybe a wizard schemes to age dragons or a vampire seeks to become ancient to increase his salient abilities.

Maybe temple specific items wands of time reversal or accleration, not used on living objects but useable to unlock that that door that appears to be caved in.

Maybe a mural that changes to show the pc's in it. Scriptures or writings that now include the pc's where they didn't before.
Sounds cool let us know how it goes.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[Napftor]

*Encounter a possible future version of one of the PCs who already made it into the Inner Sanctum. The future PC begins to warn of one of the dangers you're cooking up for that location before he suddenly ages rapidly and dies. When he dies, his body vanishes (primarily to keep potentially unbalancing items out of current PC hands).

*A room which only responds to actions performed in reverse. If you need a pass phrase to open a door, you must speak the phrase backwards. Or, instead of defeating an animated statue guard in the room, the PCs must let it defeat them in order for something to happen. This could be as simple as laying a weapon on the ground before the statue strikes you.

*An isolated room where the past is repeating and the priests inside are unaware of it, repeating the same few hours over and over. For dramatic effect, have this repeating time occur just before the temple's destruction.

*Traps that age the PCs seem obvious, but bear mentioning.