D&D 5E Water Temple Adventure (Based of Legend of Zelda) - Ideas?

[Burticusb]

My players next location of adventure will be in an old ancient sunken temple... and I want to have an over laying puzzle for them to solve as they delve deeper into its watery depths... They are level 5, and down to 4 players this week. I hope to have this adventure span multiple sessions in which they should level once or twice, the end boss is a Leviathan...

I'd like as many ideas as you guys can think of...

I'm including some images of the map layouts I was thinking of using...

I should note, these were paid and bought from Drive Thru RPG from a pack called "Fantastic Maps: Illfrost Temple Map Pack Set" for $12.99

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I remember that multiple Zelda games had water-themed levels where the main puzzle involved changing the level of the water in order to access different parts of the dungeon. The simplest way to do this might be to have the water level start at the top and have ways to drain the water so that the PCs can access the flooded floors below. Eventually the PCs drain enough to reach the lair of the leviathan at the bottom. (I think the games involved moving the water both up and down multiple times in order to explore the entire thing, but its much simpler to have the water go one way.) In order to drain the water the PCs could open dams that lead into reserves or drain into a nearby river. To open each dam the PCs must overcome some kind of challenge. The nature of each challenge is up to you and will probably relate to the nature of the dungeon itself.

For example if the dungeon could be some kind of fort whose purpose was controlling the dams that control water flow of a river, the dam controls could just be controlled by some physical mechanism. The levers could require a certain amount of strength to pull and each level could be guarded by a room full of monsters.

If you want the challenges to require thinking the dams could require some sort of puzzle to be solved. Perhaps the dungeon is a temple to a water deity that values thinking.

There are also plenty of water themed monsters in the monster manual. Read through it and pick your favourites. For level 5 the CR 5 Water elemental could be a good place to start.

 

[Remathilis]

Make sure you put enough keys in to let the players finish it, so if they go in the wrong order they aren't locked out of the rest of the dungeon.

 

[Burticusb]

I remember that multiple Zelda games had water-themed levels where the main puzzle involved changing the level of the water in order to access different parts of the dungeon. The simplest way to do this might be to have the water level start at the top and have ways to drain the water so that the PCs can access the flooded floors below. Eventually the PCs drain enough to reach the lair of the leviathan at the bottom. (I think the games involved moving the water both up and down multiple times in order to explore the entire thing, but its much simpler to have the water go one way.) In order to drain the water the PCs could open dams that lead into reserves or drain into a nearby river. To open each dam the PCs must overcome some kind of challenge. The nature of each challenge is up to you and will probably relate to the nature of the dungeon itself.

For example if the dungeon could be some kind of fort whose purpose was controlling the dams that control water flow of a river, the dam controls could just be controlled by some physical mechanism. The levers could require a certain amount of strength to pull and each level could be guarded by a room full of monsters.

If you want the challenges to require thinking the dams could require some sort of puzzle to be solved. Perhaps the dungeon is a temple to a water deity that values thinking.

There are also plenty of water themed monsters in the monster manual. Read through it and pick your favourites. For level 5 the CR 5 Water elemental could be a good place to start.

Awesome ideas, actually one of them I kinda' already used... currently they were in a sub like device (Apparatus of Kwalish) and were using it to repair a Dam that nestles above their current hometown. This Dam was purposefully damaged to lower the water to reveal the temple ruins by the party current nemesis. As they were fixing the Dam the Temple Guardian came and attacked the sub, the players escaped to the newly made "island" only to discover on the horizon an armada of ships heading their way from the town bearing the flags of their nemesis... Right now the first floor of the temple is exposed, I wanted to make it possible for them to raise and lower the water levels to reach other areas... some rooms will be inaccessible initially due to the water pressure.

 

[Burticusb]

Make sure you put enough keys in to let the players finish it, so if they go in the wrong order they aren't locked out of the rest of the dungeon.

Lol, totally remember that frustration... I want it to be challenging, but I don't want them to start rioting at my house...

There will be plenty of keys, funny thing is, the group was 5 players, but one of them can't make it for a few months, guess what character type he was...

...yup the Rogue. Mwuahahaha!!!

They'll be fine, their cleric's main domain is trickery and they have a bard...