Hey everyone. I thought of this the other day and liked it enough I decided to share it.
I am going to run a short adventure in the near future set in an abandoned cave underneath an old monastery. The monks brewed beer and whiskey in the caves due to the constant temperature, but they all died or were driven off twenty years ago. My players like whiskey in real life. They kept their alcohol and proceeds safe by magically locking doors with a set of keys. There are four keys scattered throughout the dungeon: green, red, yellow and white. One of the keys and a large iron ring will be found on a body near the cavern entrance. The keys work like a hold portal spell, making an obvious color coded rune visible on the door and locking the door, gate, chest or even book. The item locked needs some type of keyhole to be able to be held. The item stays locked permanently until the rune is triggered, dispelled or unlocked by the matching key (not picked by a thief!) If triggered, the rune does damage (acid cloud, fire ball or electrical shock respectively). The keys look like ornate metal keys and the base of the key has a picture of the trap as a handle (e.g. a teepee-shaped campfire for the red key). The white key has a skull shape on the end, and works like a skeleton key, unlocking all the doors but not setting a rune trap of its own. Each key can be used once a day, although this removes any previous runes created by the key. Several runes can be stacked on the same door.
The main prize of the dungeon will be the distilling recipe for the alcohol, a cast of really old whiskey, and dry starter yeast for brewing beer. At the end of the adventure, we all drink a shot of whiskey in real life. I am always interested in non-gold prizes. The liquor, recipes and yeasts could be worth a lot of money, but they would have to find the right buyer. This was inspired when an ice cream maker in my state went out of business a few years ago and they sold their recipes for tons of money. The party would also keep the key ring set, which I would draw out on notecards. I think the keys would make a nice magic item in my relatively low magic world.
These thoughts are free to a good home. Open to improvements if anyone has any good ideas.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Love it! I have abandoned monasteries and a thriving undercity in my campaign, so I might just snag this. My undercity also happens to manufacture a lot of magical substances (illicit and otherwise), and the city water supply is known to be...special. So perhaps the recipe my players uncover can be some kind of magical alcohol that minimizes hangovers - or is an actual hair of the dog alchemical wonder.
Just to clarify: after setting off the rune of a locked item, does it unlock? What if a powerful entity just shrugged off the trap? Could they then search through the party's things freely?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Just to clarify: after setting off the rune of a locked item, does it unlock? What if a powerful entity just shrugged off the trap? Could they then search through the party's things freely?
If someone set off the rune, the door would unlock.
Anyone who can take the rune damage could open and plunder the locked chest OR follow the players if they were trying to bunker down in an inner room behind several runed doors. I imagine it like real life...a burglar alarm discourages the lackadaisical criminal but won't curb the behavior of the determined thief. If this was something a party really liked, they could probably pay to upgrade it with more damage, etc if you allow crafting magic items.
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Love it! I have abandoned monasteries and a thriving undercity in my campaign, so I might just snag this. My undercity also happens to manufacture a lot of magical substances (illicit and otherwise), and the city water supply is known to be...special. So perhaps the recipe my players uncover can be some kind of magical alcohol that minimizes hangovers - or is an actual hair of the dog alchemical wonder.
Anything you can share to flesh this out some more would be great.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
My final decision was to make the keys out of colored paper to hand out as they found them: fire, acid, poison, lightening, sun (undead damage vs light spell causing blindness?), ice, acid, physical (darts), and a skeleton key (unlocks any door but cannot set a trap of its own). The bow of the key is cut in the shape of the trap with a relevant color (green upside down vial for acid) while the key blade and biting look like any old fashioned key.
Always open to suggestions if anyone can improve upon this.
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Whenever I think about orderly puzzle dungeons, I ask myself: What could go horribly, unexpectedly wrong to turn it into a frantic mess? And when I read the first two words of the title - "Whiskey dungeon" - my mind immediately pictured a raging fire racing through collapsing rooms toward giant casks of highly flammable liquid.
So my suggestion is to find a way to set everything on fire. A running nemesis or rival competitor may be a good source. Ideally, I'd end up with the PCs trying to fight the fire before it gets to the casks while also trying to solve their puzzle. Once they solve the puzzle, the bad guy sends mooks at them and races ahead. If the fire is still raging, they have decisions to make.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Hey everyone. I thought of this the other day and liked it enough I decided to share it.
I am going to run a short adventure in the near future set in an abandoned cave underneath an old monastery. The monks brewed beer and whiskey in the caves due to the constant temperature, but they all died or were driven off twenty years ago. My players like whiskey in real life. They kept their alcohol and proceeds safe by magically locking doors with a set of keys. There are four keys scattered throughout the dungeon: green, red, yellow and white. One of the keys and a large iron ring will be found on a body near the cavern entrance. The keys work like a hold portal spell, making an obvious color coded rune visible on the door and locking the door, gate, chest or even book. The item locked needs some type of keyhole to be able to be held. The item stays locked permanently until the rune is triggered, dispelled or unlocked by the matching key (not picked by a thief!) If triggered, the rune does damage (acid cloud, fire ball or electrical shock respectively). The keys look like ornate metal keys and the base of the key has a picture of the trap as a handle (e.g. a teepee-shaped campfire for the red key). The white key has a skull shape on the end, and works like a skeleton key, unlocking all the doors but not setting a rune trap of its own. Each key can be used once a day, although this removes any previous runes created by the key. Several runes can be stacked on the same door.
The main prize of the dungeon will be the distilling recipe for the alcohol, a cast of really old whiskey, and dry starter yeast for brewing beer. At the end of the adventure, we all drink a shot of whiskey in real life. I am always interested in non-gold prizes. The liquor, recipes and yeasts could be worth a lot of money, but they would have to find the right buyer. This was inspired when an ice cream maker in my state went out of business a few years ago and they sold their recipes for tons of money. The party would also keep the key ring set, which I would draw out on notecards. I think the keys would make a nice magic item in my relatively low magic world.
These thoughts are free to a good home. Open to improvements if anyone has any good ideas.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Love it! I have abandoned monasteries and a thriving undercity in my campaign, so I might just snag this. My undercity also happens to manufacture a lot of magical substances (illicit and otherwise), and the city water supply is known to be...special. So perhaps the recipe my players uncover can be some kind of magical alcohol that minimizes hangovers - or is an actual hair of the dog alchemical wonder.
Just to clarify: after setting off the rune of a locked item, does it unlock? What if a powerful entity just shrugged off the trap? Could they then search through the party's things freely?
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Plot twist, the yeast is from a myconid colony that is like last of us zombies.
If someone set off the rune, the door would unlock.
Anyone who can take the rune damage could open and plunder the locked chest OR follow the players if they were trying to bunker down in an inner room behind several runed doors. I imagine it like real life...a burglar alarm discourages the lackadaisical criminal but won't curb the behavior of the determined thief. If this was something a party really liked, they could probably pay to upgrade it with more damage, etc if you allow crafting magic items.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Anything you can share to flesh this out some more would be great.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
My final decision was to make the keys out of colored paper to hand out as they found them: fire, acid, poison, lightening, sun (undead damage vs light spell causing blindness?), ice, acid, physical (darts), and a skeleton key (unlocks any door but cannot set a trap of its own). The bow of the key is cut in the shape of the trap with a relevant color (green upside down vial for acid) while the key blade and biting look like any old fashioned key.
Always open to suggestions if anyone can improve upon this.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Whenever I think about orderly puzzle dungeons, I ask myself: What could go horribly, unexpectedly wrong to turn it into a frantic mess? And when I read the first two words of the title - "Whiskey dungeon" - my mind immediately pictured a raging fire racing through collapsing rooms toward giant casks of highly flammable liquid.
So my suggestion is to find a way to set everything on fire. A running nemesis or rival competitor may be a good source. Ideally, I'd end up with the PCs trying to fight the fire before it gets to the casks while also trying to solve their puzzle. Once they solve the puzzle, the bad guy sends mooks at them and races ahead. If the fire is still raging, they have decisions to make.