So my players found a secret door in a inn they bought.
I have the whole inn maped out, and instead of just adding another retable room i added boxes and furnature infront of the door, and a big question mark ? On the map for the contence.
So I was wondering if any of you would be as so kind as to help me brain storm what would be in that room.
Some context
A human ran the inn, and it is the midway point between a large city, and a large town. So it gets alot of traffic when its open.
And it is across from a forest that may or may not house a insane dryad, and the ruins of a prison that still contain sedated snake people traped in an eternal nightmare for their crimes thousands of years ago.....The usual....
Maybe the room doesn't actually exist. The door could be a magical gateway that connects to several different locations depending on which key is used to unlock it.
Use the Inn's master key or pick the lock, and it just goes outside.
Use a hidden key, and it opens to a smugglers stash in the woods.
A previous patron may arrive with their own key to access their personal sanctum.
Etc...
Whenever you want a new piece of intrigue, have the party find a new key with a distinctive symbol that tells them to try it in the door.
How big is the room? Are there other entrances or exits? What would need be hidden in this community? Are there drugs that are prohibited? Professions? Creatures? Religions?
The most basic would seem to be some kind of room for a criminal to hide out in, be they escaping from the prison or just your general na'er do well. It could also have been used as a stash room for stolen objects and such. Personally though I would just put several very cryptic items in the room and not explain it's purpose at all. The players themselves can decide it's use going forward and that gives you all the time in the world to figure out how the cryptic items tie into something else... or if they do at all.
Best part though, the players will likely openly speculate on what the items means... And you can totally steal their best ideas!
Well, I mean, maybe I'm reading too much Lovecraft lately but... the obvious answer would be they find some sort of ancient unspeakable horror in there....
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I like Memnosyne's idea, that the doorway is actually a magical gateway. So here's how I see it playing out...
Years ago an unusually attractive shadar kai elf stopped in the inn for a drink while she was out hunting for someone. The innkeeper saw her and fell in love instantly (okay, so probably "lust" more than love). She saw an opportunity. She agreed to, let's say "quench his desires", but she insisted on using the inn as a gateway to the Shadowfell. So that's where the secret door came from. Since then she has been using that gateway to travel back and forth between our realm and the Shadowfell while she hunts her bounties. But the darkness and the gloom of the Shadowfell have begun leaking through that gateway and affecting the surrounding area. That's why the nearby forest has become corrupted. That's why the dryad went insane.
So the players have a choice. They could use the gateway for their own purposes, but that would extend the nearby corruption. Or they could try to close the gateway. But to do that they would have to travel through the door into the Shadowfell, find the shadar kai who created the gateway, and kill her. But then they would still have to find a way home from the Shadowfell because once that elf dies her gateway will vanish.
Well, I mean, maybe I'm reading too much Lovecraft lately but... the obvious answer would be they find some sort of ancient unspeakable horror in there....
Which wants to get out. So it sends the party on a series of quests to assemble the proper key to open the gate. But the party just thinks it's the key to treasure or something.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I would say it depends on what you ant to have happen later. There is no reason to have it all explained now. For now, it could be a room where the innkeeper stashes stolen items, or items that he wants to avoid paying taxes on, or criminals or other persecuted creatures, whatever fits in with the general alignment of the innkeeper. Then it can turn out to have tunnels underneath it, or act as a portal, as described above.
I ran my party through 1 campaign where they discovered secret crypts in the manor of one of the players. They covered most of them, but did not realize their was a whole catacomb behind one wall. Later on, they are going back to those crypts to clear out the catacombs, and will discover a portal to a vampire's estates...
The "Warden" of the snake people prison. Maybe a Gloomstalker, charged with making sure the prison stays a prison. Maybe there's magical means into the prison from there, or maybe the warden has personal magical means to monitor and travel.
The big question: does the warden owe the PCs backrent or is the title to the property more obscure than they thought.....?
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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So my players found a secret door in a inn they bought.
I have the whole inn maped out, and instead of just adding another retable room i added boxes and furnature infront of the door, and a big question mark ? On the map for the contence.
So I was wondering if any of you would be as so kind as to help me brain storm what would be in that room.
Some context
A human ran the inn, and it is the midway point between a large city, and a large town. So it gets alot of traffic when its open.
And it is across from a forest that may or may not house a insane dryad, and the ruins of a prison that still contain sedated snake people traped in an eternal nightmare for their crimes thousands of years ago.....The usual....
Current game- Pelegos: Singularity
Game world- Thad'thra, homebrew
Role- DM
Players- Maro: Light Cleric, Rivqah: Feind Warlock, Kortek: Artillerist Artificer
Plot: Uncover a conspiracy and truth behind the Dragon, Blasphemy, and the light of the kingdom that was stollen. Drenching Baranara into shadow.
Maybe the room doesn't actually exist. The door could be a magical gateway that connects to several different locations depending on which key is used to unlock it.
Use the Inn's master key or pick the lock, and it just goes outside.
Use a hidden key, and it opens to a smugglers stash in the woods.
A previous patron may arrive with their own key to access their personal sanctum.
Etc...
Whenever you want a new piece of intrigue, have the party find a new key with a distinctive symbol that tells them to try it in the door.
How big is the room? Are there other entrances or exits? What would need be hidden in this community? Are there drugs that are prohibited? Professions? Creatures? Religions?
The most basic would seem to be some kind of room for a criminal to hide out in, be they escaping from the prison or just your general na'er do well. It could also have been used as a stash room for stolen objects and such. Personally though I would just put several very cryptic items in the room and not explain it's purpose at all. The players themselves can decide it's use going forward and that gives you all the time in the world to figure out how the cryptic items tie into something else... or if they do at all.
Best part though, the players will likely openly speculate on what the items means... And you can totally steal their best ideas!
Well, I mean, maybe I'm reading too much Lovecraft lately but... the obvious answer would be they find some sort of ancient unspeakable horror in there....
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I like Memnosyne's idea, that the doorway is actually a magical gateway. So here's how I see it playing out...
Years ago an unusually attractive shadar kai elf stopped in the inn for a drink while she was out hunting for someone. The innkeeper saw her and fell in love instantly (okay, so probably "lust" more than love). She saw an opportunity. She agreed to, let's say "quench his desires", but she insisted on using the inn as a gateway to the Shadowfell. So that's where the secret door came from. Since then she has been using that gateway to travel back and forth between our realm and the Shadowfell while she hunts her bounties. But the darkness and the gloom of the Shadowfell have begun leaking through that gateway and affecting the surrounding area. That's why the nearby forest has become corrupted. That's why the dryad went insane.
So the players have a choice. They could use the gateway for their own purposes, but that would extend the nearby corruption. Or they could try to close the gateway. But to do that they would have to travel through the door into the Shadowfell, find the shadar kai who created the gateway, and kill her. But then they would still have to find a way home from the Shadowfell because once that elf dies her gateway will vanish.
Just my 2 c.p.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
The door is a portal into the mind of John Malkovich, which the players can charge patrons in order to use.
Which wants to get out. So it sends the party on a series of quests to assemble the proper key to open the gate. But the party just thinks it's the key to treasure or something.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I would say it depends on what you ant to have happen later. There is no reason to have it all explained now. For now, it could be a room where the innkeeper stashes stolen items, or items that he wants to avoid paying taxes on, or criminals or other persecuted creatures, whatever fits in with the general alignment of the innkeeper. Then it can turn out to have tunnels underneath it, or act as a portal, as described above.
I ran my party through 1 campaign where they discovered secret crypts in the manor of one of the players. They covered most of them, but did not realize their was a whole catacomb behind one wall. Later on, they are going back to those crypts to clear out the catacombs, and will discover a portal to a vampire's estates...
The "Warden" of the snake people prison. Maybe a Gloomstalker, charged with making sure the prison stays a prison. Maybe there's magical means into the prison from there, or maybe the warden has personal magical means to monitor and travel.
The big question: does the warden owe the PCs backrent or is the title to the property more obscure than they thought.....?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.