The set up: Party is 4 characters at Level 15 and one "follower/servent" at Level 4
A while ago the party inadvertently revealed information to one of the Lords of Waterdeep which caused him to attack one of the other Lord's households which started a civil war within the city. The seemingly benign information that they revealed has caused this Lord to dwell in his hatred and anger for this other house for the better part of a year. The party has not been particularly involved in this war, and only a handful of NPCs know that they were involved in starting it at all. They have now been tasked by one of those NPCs with talking down / killing the Lord that started all of this.
Side note: Without going into full detail, the information that set him off was contained in a journal that the party found in the Shadowfell. It's not magical (the party checked at the time) but his furious obsession with it over the last year could have given it magical properties by now.
At this point he has lost this war but refuses to quit. He is locked away in the secret dungeon underneath the charred remains of his manor. The party knows where to find him
I am trying to come up with an interesting way to do this that isn't just a typical "walk through a dungeon, fight the things, boss at end"
My thought was that the extreme hatred and anger he has been dwelling in has begun to manifest within the dungeon itself and warp it. An "Anger" Shadowsworn or two will definitely be appearing at some point, but at the moment that's all I've got.
So I'm looking for ideas. Anything you guys can come up with is welcome.
Again, keep in mind that the party is pretty high level. I'm looking for something to challenge them. Their 4th level companion is not story relevant, so if he dies that is not a problem.
I'd link the charred mansion's basement dungeon to the Shadowfell and due to the proximity of a shadow crossing there would be agony emanating from the place
Some Aberration, Undead, Monstrosities, Elemental monsters shadow-revlavored (MM+)
Reflavored trap like Necrotic Breathing Statue trap
I'm sure other people have the mechanics covered, but I like narrative stuff! If his hatred was strong enough to infect the dungeon, why not the players? The dungeon is being warped to his will, so make some good ol' psychological stuff. Maybe the aura of hatred gets stronger the deeper they go, and the party has to make throws not to lose themselves. If they fail, they might see the image of their most hated enemy walk into the room. Hopefully, they'll take a swing at it, but after the effect wears off for whatever reason, they see that it was actually their party member that they just attacked.
An extension of that idea may be that items in the dungeon can suddenly become animated with hatred- decorative swords fly off the walls with no warning and fly at the PC's necks for a surprise round. What used to be roped holding up oil lamps become snakes which spit fire. And the door to the next room is actually a gate to the player's worst memories- wait what?
What I'm saying is, take the opportunity to REALLY screw with your player's minds. Maybe they walk into a circular room that seems to have no end to it. What now?
Depending on how mean you want to be, and how much the party loves their companion, they could see the illusion of said companion's dead body, or accidentally attack them. Maybe their companion was never really the one beside them, and that was just an illusion as well. Perchance, it was an enemy in disguise, or even it was said NPC they were tasked with killing walking alongside them, guiding them into every trap. This keeps it from being a "make it to the boss" sort of dungeon.
Also, the first question that comes to my mind is how exactly this normal guy (from what I can tell) is able to conjure all of this with his hatred? Did he make a pact with something? Is there some being egging him on? Did he find a dangerous magic item?
Another little thing, and I don't know what corner of my brain is telling me this, but have one room in this place be some kind of game board. My first thought is chess. Or maybe some kind of simplified chess. The magic of the dungeon can split and group up the party through various means. Maybe one party member is forced to play a game against this NPC, or some manifestation of the dungeon and its hatred. However, the other party members are the pieces. And if the "strategist" player fails to keep them from being hurt/captured by the dungeon, well, you decide what happens. They cannot move unless commanded, etc. A cool thing to do here is maybe make those rules a little lax, and modify the game a bit. Maybe the "strategist" player the dungeon chose to command the others can help them- grant them certain abilities for the length of the game, allowing the other party members to move on their own and have more freedom. Ex, you can move in this pattern, attack in this pattern, you can also do XYZ. Another thing you could do here is allow that player to place cover on the game board, or summon other "pieces" to help. This allows the other party members to have autonomy and make their own choices. Here's an idea for where a player "captured" by the dungeon during this game could go- they may be forced to fight something on their own, maybe memories of their past, etc, or maybe the dungeon gains the ability to posses their body. If the players make it to the end of the dungeon, this player can be turned against them when they reach the NPC, or if you chose to go with my idea from earlier, when they discover their companion isn't who he says he is.
As always though, have fun with it! Creativity is key!
You can never go wrong with Fiends (personally always found Yugoloths to be the strongest (Nycaloth and Arcanaloth the strongest)). You’d think Demons would make the most sense but even the Lawful Evil Devil’s are seething hatred and madness held back by the sheer dictates of their superiors. A pit friend with just a few more hit points above the average would make a terrifying boss monster.
Small Note: Depending on how you do ability scores and hand out magic items, there are a few changes I make to most of my monsters after CR 10. Every Monster has 2 or 4 Saving Throw Proficiences, not 3 by example. Monsters get the same calculation for HP as players, not the precise average (so Max HD at 1st, followed by dice average rounded up each level after). Sometimes I’ll even increase the monster’s total number of HD. And many monsters get a +1 Bonus to AC. Honestly, these small changes won’t make a lot of difference for individual monsters, but they can add up in groups.
I love everything about this post. And it's even better than you realize because it fits in perfectly with some of the other stuff going on that I didn't bother to mention above because it's too many details.
"Maybe the aura of hatred gets stronger the deeper they go, and the party has to make throws not to lose themselves. If they fail, they might see the image of their most hated enemy walk into the room. "
They got the diary, mentioned above, from a pair of vampires (A noble and his ward in the shadowfell). These two have organically become the primary antagonists of the party. They are in Neverwinter. The party is currently in Waterdeep. There is precisely NO reason for them to be here. And they aren't. But what if the dungeon manifests them? But not actually as they are, but as the party sees them?
This is a fantastic plan and I love it.
"Maybe their companion was never really the one beside them, and that was just an illusion as well. Perchance, it was an enemy in disguise, or even it was said NPC they were tasked with killing walking alongside them, guiding them into every trap. This keeps it from being a "make it to the boss" sort of dungeon. "
I like this idea, but am afraid it requires me to be a better DM than I typically am. The idea of their companion going mad in this place and forcing the party to subdue him is appealing. I think that the whole "Their target takes control and guides them" is a fun idea, but strongly implies that their target is actually in control of this chaos, which he DECIDEDLY is not.
"Also, the first question that comes to my mind is how exactly this normal guy (from what I can tell) is able to conjure all of this with his hatred? Did he make a pact with something? Is there some being egging him on? Did he find a dangerous magic item? "
My intention was that after becoming completely obsessed with this journal for the better part of year, and pouring all of his hatred and malice into it, and getting most of his family killed in the process caused "the weave" to warp the journal into something else entirely. Add in the shadowfell connection, and you may have the spontaneous creation of a truly unpleasent artifact? Maybe?
"You can never go wrong with Fiends (personally always found Yugoloths to be the strongest (Nycaloth and Arcanaloth the strongest)). You’d think Demons would make the most sense but even the Lawful Evil Devil’s are seething hatred and madness held back by the sheer dictates of their superiors. A pit friend with just a few more hit points above the average would make a terrifying boss monster."
I think the spontaneous creation of that artifact is a pretty good idea! Glad some of my ideas were good, and hope your party suffe- has a lot of fun! :D
After thinking about this a bit, I like the idea of the Vampire duo being the noble's hate fueled idea of them rather than the party's.
This leads to a follow up question:
If a noble lord of Waterdeep had never seen a vampire, and only really knew about them from second hand information, what would he think a vampire is?
What would a monster built off of "Noble's idea of a vampire" look like? What would it's powers be?
My thought is that they will encounter the Noble's idea of what these two are like, based on what he read in the diary, within the dungeon. But I need to figure out what their actual powers / stat block would look like.
I think it depends on what information the noble has on vampires. I also don't have a lot of knowledge on DnD modules, so I can't really know what that would be. I do think that if vampires are considered to be vicious monsters though, that's exactly what they'd look like. They might have a human shape, but they would look kind of horrifying. It would probably give off a skin-walker vibe? Maybe they crawl around on the ceilings? Maybe their jaws can unhinge themselves?
If the noble has information that they look exactly like humans, save for some small features, they might end up being pretty normal spellcasters, etc, until they go for your throat and heal from the player's blood. Although, those small features could end up being exaggerated. The fangs might hang out of their mouths, and the ears might be pointier than an elf's.
Something interesting could be piggybacking off of the idea that vampires are shapeshifters- have them do a whole lot of that in combat. Grappled? Not anymore! The vampire is a bat, and it's gotten away. Andddd now its a massive spider with a hundred eyes crawling on the wall next to you. Run.
Whatever it is, it's likely widely distorted from what a vampire actually is in this world. Nobles are pretty far removed from the world at large, so if they're told that a vampire is a horrifying bloodsucking creature that lives in the woods and makes ritual sacrifices to the gods, you'd get that and more- the worst thing that noble can possibly picture.
Darkness as a hazard: As a dungeon mechanic you can make darkness hazardous by giving it qualities similar to maddening darkness. In other words some negative effect when within it and the magical darkness property that prevents darkvision seeing through it. If you choose to allow light to sources to illuminate it that may cause players to group up in those light sources or you can create situations where lights have to be used to create paths. If light can't illuminate it then players may even need to run from darkness. You can either let any light source, only magical light sources or specific dungeon provided light sources function. There's really allot of flexibility to it and it's a mechanic used in allot of games.
Possession: It can be an interesting twist to monsters to have them be possessed npcs and this can complicate combat by making a goal be to deal with them non lethally. Allot of supernatural creatures can be used as the stat block for possessed individuals for example a shadow could be a villager shrouded in shadow and a angry sorrowsworn can be some one driven mad with anger.
Damage auras and reflective damage: Monsters can be given effects that deal damage to players if they attempt to fight them. This can be damage auras like the nightwalker or damage on attacks like shadow of moil and hellish rebuke. This can punish aggression that theme of corrupting anger.
You can also make darkness obstructive without being deadly by saying it’s equivalent to the (un)hallow spell, where it can only be dispelled by a light spell cast at an equal or higher level than the (un)hallow was cast at. Likewise, there’s desecrated ground from the DMG which is awesomely crazy because it gives undead advantage on all saving throws. Might force the PC’s to create a safe spot either with the hallow spell or LOTS of vials of holy water.
For ease of reading: The deeply troubled Noble is William. The Vampire duo are Lord Olarch and his ward Gwendolyn.
Because I'm not super creative, I've decided that Gwendolyn's manifestation is being treated as a "Blood Hag" from Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts. Reading through the description, it sounds like what someone who knows basically nothing about vampires might think a vampire is.
Olarch is, in the mind of the noble, a bit of a footnote. I am going to treat his manifestation as a vampire spawn. Also he only kind of looks like him, since all that William has to go off of is some sketches in the diary.
William's obsession and madness is directly related to Gwendolyn and, to him, Olarch is just "also there". In the "real world" of the campaign Olarch is an extremely powerful vampire lord who came extremely close to causing a TPK before they managed to escape, while Gwendolyn is "just a vampire". I am hoping that this clash with what they know will be amusing for all.
I am intending their fight to take place in a ballroom located in the middle of the dungeon right after the torture chamber. Twisting reality is fun :)
The set up: Party is 4 characters at Level 15 and one "follower/servent" at Level 4
A while ago the party inadvertently revealed information to one of the Lords of Waterdeep which caused him to attack one of the other Lord's households which started a civil war within the city. The seemingly benign information that they revealed has caused this Lord to dwell in his hatred and anger for this other house for the better part of a year. The party has not been particularly involved in this war, and only a handful of NPCs know that they were involved in starting it at all. They have now been tasked by one of those NPCs with talking down / killing the Lord that started all of this.
Side note: Without going into full detail, the information that set him off was contained in a journal that the party found in the Shadowfell. It's not magical (the party checked at the time) but his furious obsession with it over the last year could have given it magical properties by now.
At this point he has lost this war but refuses to quit. He is locked away in the secret dungeon underneath the charred remains of his manor. The party knows where to find him
I am trying to come up with an interesting way to do this that isn't just a typical "walk through a dungeon, fight the things, boss at end"
My thought was that the extreme hatred and anger he has been dwelling in has begun to manifest within the dungeon itself and warp it. An "Anger" Shadowsworn or two will definitely be appearing at some point, but at the moment that's all I've got.
So I'm looking for ideas. Anything you guys can come up with is welcome.
Again, keep in mind that the party is pretty high level. I'm looking for something to challenge them. Their 4th level companion is not story relevant, so if he dies that is not a problem.
I'd link the charred mansion's basement dungeon to the Shadowfell and due to the proximity of a shadow crossing there would be agony emanating from the place
Some Aberration, Undead, Monstrosities, Elemental monsters shadow-revlavored (MM+)
Reflavored trap like Necrotic Breathing Statue trap
A Shpere of Annhilation trap (DMG)
Reflavored Necrotic Blast trap (XGE)
A Sleep of Age trap (XGE)
A Poisoned Tempest complex trap (XGE)
Reflavored disease Agony Cackle Fever disease (DMG)
Gas Poison presence (DMG)
Effect inducing Madness effect (DMG)
An Eldritch Storm area (TCoE)
An Emotional Echoes area (TCoE)
A Haunted supernatural region (TCoE)
An Infested supernatural region (TCoE)
A Psychic Resonnance supernatural region (TCoE)
An Unraveling Magic supernatural region (TCoE)
A Magic Mushroom magic phenomenon (TCoE)
I have some reading to do...
I'm sure other people have the mechanics covered, but I like narrative stuff! If his hatred was strong enough to infect the dungeon, why not the players? The dungeon is being warped to his will, so make some good ol' psychological stuff. Maybe the aura of hatred gets stronger the deeper they go, and the party has to make throws not to lose themselves. If they fail, they might see the image of their most hated enemy walk into the room. Hopefully, they'll take a swing at it, but after the effect wears off for whatever reason, they see that it was actually their party member that they just attacked.
An extension of that idea may be that items in the dungeon can suddenly become animated with hatred- decorative swords fly off the walls with no warning and fly at the PC's necks for a surprise round. What used to be roped holding up oil lamps become snakes which spit fire. And the door to the next room is actually a gate to the player's worst memories- wait what?
What I'm saying is, take the opportunity to REALLY screw with your player's minds. Maybe they walk into a circular room that seems to have no end to it. What now?
Depending on how mean you want to be, and how much the party loves their companion, they could see the illusion of said companion's dead body, or accidentally attack them. Maybe their companion was never really the one beside them, and that was just an illusion as well. Perchance, it was an enemy in disguise, or even it was said NPC they were tasked with killing walking alongside them, guiding them into every trap. This keeps it from being a "make it to the boss" sort of dungeon.
Also, the first question that comes to my mind is how exactly this normal guy (from what I can tell) is able to conjure all of this with his hatred? Did he make a pact with something? Is there some being egging him on? Did he find a dangerous magic item?
Another little thing, and I don't know what corner of my brain is telling me this, but have one room in this place be some kind of game board. My first thought is chess. Or maybe some kind of simplified chess. The magic of the dungeon can split and group up the party through various means. Maybe one party member is forced to play a game against this NPC, or some manifestation of the dungeon and its hatred. However, the other party members are the pieces. And if the "strategist" player fails to keep them from being hurt/captured by the dungeon, well, you decide what happens. They cannot move unless commanded, etc. A cool thing to do here is maybe make those rules a little lax, and modify the game a bit. Maybe the "strategist" player the dungeon chose to command the others can help them- grant them certain abilities for the length of the game, allowing the other party members to move on their own and have more freedom. Ex, you can move in this pattern, attack in this pattern, you can also do XYZ. Another thing you could do here is allow that player to place cover on the game board, or summon other "pieces" to help. This allows the other party members to have autonomy and make their own choices. Here's an idea for where a player "captured" by the dungeon during this game could go- they may be forced to fight something on their own, maybe memories of their past, etc, or maybe the dungeon gains the ability to posses their body. If the players make it to the end of the dungeon, this player can be turned against them when they reach the NPC, or if you chose to go with my idea from earlier, when they discover their companion isn't who he says he is.
As always though, have fun with it! Creativity is key!
You can never go wrong with Fiends (personally always found Yugoloths to be the strongest (Nycaloth and Arcanaloth the strongest)). You’d think Demons would make the most sense but even the Lawful Evil Devil’s are seething hatred and madness held back by the sheer dictates of their superiors. A pit friend with just a few more hit points above the average would make a terrifying boss monster.
Small Note: Depending on how you do ability scores and hand out magic items, there are a few changes I make to most of my monsters after CR 10. Every Monster has 2 or 4 Saving Throw Proficiences, not 3 by example. Monsters get the same calculation for HP as players, not the precise average (so Max HD at 1st, followed by dice average rounded up each level after). Sometimes I’ll even increase the monster’s total number of HD. And many monsters get a +1 Bonus to AC. Honestly, these small changes won’t make a lot of difference for individual monsters, but they can add up in groups.
I love everything about this post. And it's even better than you realize because it fits in perfectly with some of the other stuff going on that I didn't bother to mention above because it's too many details.
"Maybe the aura of hatred gets stronger the deeper they go, and the party has to make throws not to lose themselves. If they fail, they might see the image of their most hated enemy walk into the room. "
They got the diary, mentioned above, from a pair of vampires (A noble and his ward in the shadowfell). These two have organically become the primary antagonists of the party. They are in Neverwinter. The party is currently in Waterdeep. There is precisely NO reason for them to be here. And they aren't. But what if the dungeon manifests them? But not actually as they are, but as the party sees them?
This is a fantastic plan and I love it.
"Maybe their companion was never really the one beside them, and that was just an illusion as well. Perchance, it was an enemy in disguise, or even it was said NPC they were tasked with killing walking alongside them, guiding them into every trap. This keeps it from being a "make it to the boss" sort of dungeon. "
I like this idea, but am afraid it requires me to be a better DM than I typically am. The idea of their companion going mad in this place and forcing the party to subdue him is appealing. I think that the whole "Their target takes control and guides them" is a fun idea, but strongly implies that their target is actually in control of this chaos, which he DECIDEDLY is not.
"Also, the first question that comes to my mind is how exactly this normal guy (from what I can tell) is able to conjure all of this with his hatred? Did he make a pact with something? Is there some being egging him on? Did he find a dangerous magic item? "
My intention was that after becoming completely obsessed with this journal for the better part of year, and pouring all of his hatred and malice into it, and getting most of his family killed in the process caused "the weave" to warp the journal into something else entirely. Add in the shadowfell connection, and you may have the spontaneous creation of a truly unpleasent artifact? Maybe?
"You can never go wrong with Fiends (personally always found Yugoloths to be the strongest (Nycaloth and Arcanaloth the strongest)). You’d think Demons would make the most sense but even the Lawful Evil Devil’s are seething hatred and madness held back by the sheer dictates of their superiors. A pit friend with just a few more hit points above the average would make a terrifying boss monster."
Monster ideas are greatly appreciated.
I think the spontaneous creation of that artifact is a pretty good idea! Glad some of my ideas were good, and hope your party suffe- has a lot of fun! :D
After thinking about this a bit, I like the idea of the Vampire duo being the noble's hate fueled idea of them rather than the party's.
This leads to a follow up question:
If a noble lord of Waterdeep had never seen a vampire, and only really knew about them from second hand information, what would he think a vampire is?
What would a monster built off of "Noble's idea of a vampire" look like? What would it's powers be?
My thought is that they will encounter the Noble's idea of what these two are like, based on what he read in the diary, within the dungeon. But I need to figure out what their actual powers / stat block would look like.
I think it depends on what information the noble has on vampires. I also don't have a lot of knowledge on DnD modules, so I can't really know what that would be. I do think that if vampires are considered to be vicious monsters though, that's exactly what they'd look like. They might have a human shape, but they would look kind of horrifying. It would probably give off a skin-walker vibe? Maybe they crawl around on the ceilings? Maybe their jaws can unhinge themselves?
If the noble has information that they look exactly like humans, save for some small features, they might end up being pretty normal spellcasters, etc, until they go for your throat and heal from the player's blood. Although, those small features could end up being exaggerated. The fangs might hang out of their mouths, and the ears might be pointier than an elf's.
Something interesting could be piggybacking off of the idea that vampires are shapeshifters- have them do a whole lot of that in combat. Grappled? Not anymore! The vampire is a bat, and it's gotten away. Andddd now its a massive spider with a hundred eyes crawling on the wall next to you. Run.
Whatever it is, it's likely widely distorted from what a vampire actually is in this world. Nobles are pretty far removed from the world at large, so if they're told that a vampire is a horrifying bloodsucking creature that lives in the woods and makes ritual sacrifices to the gods, you'd get that and more- the worst thing that noble can possibly picture.
Some monsters
You can also make darkness obstructive without being deadly by saying it’s equivalent to the (un)hallow spell, where it can only be dispelled by a light spell cast at an equal or higher level than the (un)hallow was cast at. Likewise, there’s desecrated ground from the DMG which is awesomely crazy because it gives undead advantage on all saving throws. Might force the PC’s to create a safe spot either with the hallow spell or LOTS of vials of holy water.
For ease of reading: The deeply troubled Noble is William. The Vampire duo are Lord Olarch and his ward Gwendolyn.
Because I'm not super creative, I've decided that Gwendolyn's manifestation is being treated as a "Blood Hag" from Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts. Reading through the description, it sounds like what someone who knows basically nothing about vampires might think a vampire is.
Olarch is, in the mind of the noble, a bit of a footnote. I am going to treat his manifestation as a vampire spawn. Also he only kind of looks like him, since all that William has to go off of is some sketches in the diary.
William's obsession and madness is directly related to Gwendolyn and, to him, Olarch is just "also there". In the "real world" of the campaign Olarch is an extremely powerful vampire lord who came extremely close to causing a TPK before they managed to escape, while Gwendolyn is "just a vampire". I am hoping that this clash with what they know will be amusing for all.
I am intending their fight to take place in a ballroom located in the middle of the dungeon right after the torture chamber. Twisting reality is fun :)
Oh my!!!! that's I subject I looking for.
@YogoGohei - how it works? Any new ideas on Hatred area?
Carpe diem and yes - have fun playing - leading games!