Hi all! Thank you for taking a moment to chime in!
I plan on starting a new homebrew campaign once my current one is over. I intend it to be a mid to high level campaign with 3-4 players who are all well versed with the 2014 5E mechanics.
The basic background of the campaign is that a "mad" Artificer-Lich and his 3 pupils have created a doomsday weapon that harnesses the latent energy of the Negative Energy Plane and focus it into an annihilating beam of energy (think the "Ark" from 'Sonic Adventure 2,' or the "Death Star" from 'Star Wars,' or the satellite cannon from season one of 'Invincible') that he uses to obliterate entire cities with. Prior to the doomsday weapon's creation, each pupil was sought out by the Lich for their expertise in a field of "engineering" so-to-speak. The first is a cruel and violent Tiefling from the Nine Hells who specialized in infernal weapons, siege devices, and all things "heavy metal" or 'Mad Max' inspired. The second is a pompous and narcistic Aarakocra from the Feywild who bends the meaning and rules that most if not all Fey follow such as the "Rule of Hospitality" or the "Rule of Reciprocity," and who I consider to be kind of like a programmer/hacker or something like a computer science engineer (???). The last is a logic-orientented and analytical Warforged from Mechanus who could "successfully reinvent the wheel" and stand behind that statement, and who, more or less put it all together with guidance from the Lich.
As part of the campaign, I intend for the players to find/locate each pupils' lairs/labs/homes (which will be more like dungeons in a sense) in order to find answers on what is destroying the cities on their home plane, where it's located, and/or how to stop it. Now this is where your help is requested! Because of the engineering-like mentality and pseudo-scifi nature of the doomsday weapon, I want their lairs to reflect this. Like what traps, amenities, or encounters would the players face in each of the pupils' lairs? Or how would their places be layed out? Or what difficulties and setbacks would the party potentially face that they wouldn't in a typical dungeon?
I have taken a lot of inspiration from the 'Tomb or Annihilation' and 'Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage' while I have been running this current campaign so im familair with multi-level/stage dungeons. I have also read through the classic and 5E revised version of 'The Tomb of Horrors' several times and enjoyed it enough to look into 'Return to the Tomb Of Horrors,' and enjoyed that one EVEN more so I feel I'm no stranger to deadly contraptions and sometimes overcomplicated though puzzles (which I'd love to implement but I feel would be too mean to the players, not the characters). And I have taken a look into "Arcane Engineering" by 'The Gorilla of Destiny' on drivethrurpg(dot)com or on gorillaofdestiny(dot)com, and I find the creations he makes REALLY INTERESTING but it's too technical for my liking..
SO, with all that layed out, any suggestions on how to build/design these "dungeons?"
THANK YOU!
Note: I apologize for any potential spelling or grammatical errors.
TL;DR: A "mechanical engineer" Tiefling from the 9 Hells, a "programmer" Aarakocra from the Feywild, and a "machinist" Warforged from Mechanus helped a lich build a doomsday device. What would their respective lairs/labs look like to make them seem like a dungeon?
I aimed for the Tiefling and Aarakocra to both be deceased, either having served their purpose to the Lich or because they failed to live up to the Lich's other nye-impossible expectations. The Warforged is planned to be integrated into the doomsday machine in a similar fashion to Cyborg from 'Justice League Dark: Apokolips War,' so in a state "not quite dead, not quite alive, simply 'existing.'"
I hadn't really considered what their goals would have been, but when the party is introduced and brought together, all 3 pupils will be no longer needed by the lich, so I guess they will have achieved their goal? But if it helps, the goal of the tiefling under the lich was to create an engine that would power the doomsday device and/or an engine that could utilize the power of the Negative Energy Plane; the goal of the Aarakocra was to design a sort of cloaking device or an operating system that would ensure the doomsday device could not be found; and the goal of the Warforged was to build the doomsday device itself, following the blueprints from the lich and integrating the components from his fellow pupils.
And once again, I haven't given much thought into what they would have gotten out of the Lich. I suppose the Tiefling would gain little from him, seeing how he's cruel in his actions, already having an interest in war machines. Maybe he even did it simply for his own enjoyment, I'm not sure. The Aarakocra may have done it as means to test the limits of his genius or the limits of Fey eules/laws. And the goal of the Warforged is unknown to me, even now.
Oh so the lairs/labs are abandoned, the pupils are no longer present within them. So then you can put all kinds of stuff in there and justify it as some other creatures coming in and taking over the now abandoned labs.
If the Tiefling was working on the actual engine drawing energy from the Negative Energy Plane then their lab should have portals to the negative energy plane from failed experiments and be infested with creatures from the Negative Energy Plane. Maybe some kind of life-draining environmental effect while the portals remain open.
If the Aarakocra was working on a cloak, then their lab should be filled with illusions and invisible things.
The warforged should have lots of mechanical stuff in it and giant industrial systems that work like traps - consider the clone factory action scene from Star Wars Ep2, maybe some golem workers, maybe some tesla-coil like traps.
I definitely failed to remember that something as simple as an active portal can be a trap haha and I'll take a look into the Star Wars Clone factory! Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi all! Thank you for taking a moment to chime in!
I plan on starting a new homebrew campaign once my current one is over. I intend it to be a mid to high level campaign with 3-4 players who are all well versed with the 2014 5E mechanics.
The basic background of the campaign is that a "mad" Artificer-Lich and his 3 pupils have created a doomsday weapon that harnesses the latent energy of the Negative Energy Plane and focus it into an annihilating beam of energy (think the "Ark" from 'Sonic Adventure 2,' or the "Death Star" from 'Star Wars,' or the satellite cannon from season one of 'Invincible') that he uses to obliterate entire cities with. Prior to the doomsday weapon's creation, each pupil was sought out by the Lich for their expertise in a field of "engineering" so-to-speak. The first is a cruel and violent Tiefling from the Nine Hells who specialized in infernal weapons, siege devices, and all things "heavy metal" or 'Mad Max' inspired. The second is a pompous and narcistic Aarakocra from the Feywild who bends the meaning and rules that most if not all Fey follow such as the "Rule of Hospitality" or the "Rule of Reciprocity," and who I consider to be kind of like a programmer/hacker or something like a computer science engineer (???). The last is a logic-orientented and analytical Warforged from Mechanus who could "successfully reinvent the wheel" and stand behind that statement, and who, more or less put it all together with guidance from the Lich.
As part of the campaign, I intend for the players to find/locate each pupils' lairs/labs/homes (which will be more like dungeons in a sense) in order to find answers on what is destroying the cities on their home plane, where it's located, and/or how to stop it. Now this is where your help is requested! Because of the engineering-like mentality and pseudo-scifi nature of the doomsday weapon, I want their lairs to reflect this. Like what traps, amenities, or encounters would the players face in each of the pupils' lairs? Or how would their places be layed out? Or what difficulties and setbacks would the party potentially face that they wouldn't in a typical dungeon?
I have taken a lot of inspiration from the 'Tomb or Annihilation' and 'Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage' while I have been running this current campaign so im familair with multi-level/stage dungeons. I have also read through the classic and 5E revised version of 'The Tomb of Horrors' several times and enjoyed it enough to look into 'Return to the Tomb Of Horrors,' and enjoyed that one EVEN more so I feel I'm no stranger to deadly contraptions and sometimes overcomplicated though puzzles (which I'd love to implement but I feel would be too mean to the players, not the characters). And I have taken a look into "Arcane Engineering" by 'The Gorilla of Destiny' on drivethrurpg(dot)com or on gorillaofdestiny(dot)com, and I find the creations he makes REALLY INTERESTING but it's too technical for my liking..
SO, with all that layed out, any suggestions on how to build/design these "dungeons?"
THANK YOU!
Note: I apologize for any potential spelling or grammatical errors.
TL;DR: A "mechanical engineer" Tiefling from the 9 Hells, a "programmer" Aarakocra from the Feywild, and a "machinist" Warforged from Mechanus helped a lich build a doomsday device. What would their respective lairs/labs look like to make them seem like a dungeon?
What are the pupils doing now? What do they need to achieve their current goals? What did they get out of working with the Lich?
Thank you for the reply!
I aimed for the Tiefling and Aarakocra to both be deceased, either having served their purpose to the Lich or because they failed to live up to the Lich's other nye-impossible expectations. The Warforged is planned to be integrated into the doomsday machine in a similar fashion to Cyborg from 'Justice League Dark: Apokolips War,' so in a state "not quite dead, not quite alive, simply 'existing.'"
I hadn't really considered what their goals would have been, but when the party is introduced and brought together, all 3 pupils will be no longer needed by the lich, so I guess they will have achieved their goal? But if it helps, the goal of the tiefling under the lich was to create an engine that would power the doomsday device and/or an engine that could utilize the power of the Negative Energy Plane; the goal of the Aarakocra was to design a sort of cloaking device or an operating system that would ensure the doomsday device could not be found; and the goal of the Warforged was to build the doomsday device itself, following the blueprints from the lich and integrating the components from his fellow pupils.
And once again, I haven't given much thought into what they would have gotten out of the Lich. I suppose the Tiefling would gain little from him, seeing how he's cruel in his actions, already having an interest in war machines. Maybe he even did it simply for his own enjoyment, I'm not sure. The Aarakocra may have done it as means to test the limits of his genius or the limits of Fey eules/laws. And the goal of the Warforged is unknown to me, even now.
Hope this helps!
Oh so the lairs/labs are abandoned, the pupils are no longer present within them. So then you can put all kinds of stuff in there and justify it as some other creatures coming in and taking over the now abandoned labs.
If the Tiefling was working on the actual engine drawing energy from the Negative Energy Plane then their lab should have portals to the negative energy plane from failed experiments and be infested with creatures from the Negative Energy Plane. Maybe some kind of life-draining environmental effect while the portals remain open.
If the Aarakocra was working on a cloak, then their lab should be filled with illusions and invisible things.
The warforged should have lots of mechanical stuff in it and giant industrial systems that work like traps - consider the clone factory action scene from Star Wars Ep2, maybe some golem workers, maybe some tesla-coil like traps.
Thank you for the ideas!
I definitely failed to remember that something as simple as an active portal can be a trap haha and I'll take a look into the Star Wars Clone factory! Thanks for the suggestion!
The tiefling mechanical / mad max style resonates for me with Ravnica Rakdos, so you could find useful this two bestselling dungeons of mine:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/266754/RAVNICA-Crypt-of-Horrors
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/300877/RAVNICA-Return-to-the-Crypt-of-Horrors
Oh dope, thanks! I'll take look!