Mino Labyrinth

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qcgreywolf
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Mino Labyrinth

Post by qcgreywolf »

So, on a rare d100 roll of 100 for encounters, I like to do something 'special'. I roll another d100 and if it is in the lower 50 I plan an encounter that is bad or negative that will challenge the group and in the top 50 I plan something good and/or unique. This time around, I had my group encounter a Minotaur in a hurry, stomping his way somewhere through the forest, bloodied and carrying an immense bronze chest. To my partial surprise, they didn't murder-hobo him! (Level 4 party)

Which is good for them, because this was a 'good' encounter.

Long story short he sent them on a quest to kill his 'kin' who ousted him from his home. And in payment, he left them with a magical Mirrored Bronze shield (+1 Mirrored Heavy Steel shield) with the promise of even better treasure should the succeed.

So I whipped up a labyrinth, and I am carving out VBL now. Once I am done with that, I am going to need to fill it with stuff. I was thinking along the lines of either a heavy undead base or a heavy beast/magical beast base. The Mino in charge will either be a necro or a druid/ranger.

Anyone have any memorable moments in dungeons, traps or what have you that I can steal to populate the dangers in the labyrinth? I am going to have a couple dozen commonish traps and a handful of whopper traps/encounters. Some ideas I have right now;

1) It is a timed dungeon. Once they step in, the entrance seals shut with a 5-10' slab of granite and a clock on an immense central tower starts ticking audibly. They have 10-20 minutes to finish the dungeon before rooms escalate their danger (assign each room a 1-6 and every round roll a d6 to see which rooms are more dangerous after the timer expires)

2) Players 'could' fly or climb up to get a lay of the land, but they get only one round of free time, after that every head that pokes up get a shaft of lightning from the central tower.

3) Soul Jar - trap similar to the Soul Jar event in Diablo 3, lots of skeletons spawn constantly, ramping up in frequency, unless/until they destroy the jar or kill X skeletons.

4)Animated objects (statues, tables, chests, stuffed animals)

5) Standard smattering of grade B traps, arrow traps, blade traps, spike traps, pitfall traps, falling stone traps, etc. Standard dungeon fare.

Let me know if there is anything particularly fun/clever they've encountered in the past that stuck with them. Keep in mind it is a timed dungeon, so I want to avoid 'puzzle' style traps that would consume whole minutes in game time.

And once it is completed, I'll be sharing it with everyone after my party plays through it.

taustinoc
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Re: Mino Labyrinth

Post by taustinoc »

The most memorable dungeon trap I've ever seen was a simple hole in the wall. People cannot resist taking a peek. Behind the hole was a first level orc with a ballista pointed through the hole. Every single time the GM ran that dungeon, he killed at least one character. One memorable dufus died twice (we had a cleric in the party who could raise dead) in the same session, on the theory that "the trap's been sprung, so it should be safe now." When he proposed a third time, we told him that if he died again, we'd loot the body and leave it there for the rats.

Amazingly, he refrained from a third try.

(The orc got enough experience to go up a level, and was promoted, and replaced by another first level orc.)

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JamzTheMan
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Re: Mino Labyrinth

Post by JamzTheMan »

There was a 'mean' trap from a module a while back, a wall with 2 holes in it. You had to stick both arms in to disable trap. If you failed, a large stone block dropped from the back side and severed both hands off. Insert a reflex save here of what ever TN you want to set the difficulty (or none!). Alternate, something traps the rogues arms. Now watch as the party discusses the need to cut his arms off because of "time"...

Another simple low level trap, 2 huge bronze doors. That go no where. They just fall on the party when pulled. Great for a dead end and make them think they finally made it to the end of maze... #hopesDashed
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taustinoc
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Re: Mino Labyrinth

Post by taustinoc »

Then there was the Paladin trap. A Paladin's Holy Sword, you see, included an anti-magic shell around him. Completely blocked all magic.

So the Evil Wizard(tm) use a telekinesis spell to hold a 10 ton block above a corridor. When the Paladin walked through the corridor, it blocked the telekinesis, the block dropped, the paladin was abstract art on the walls. And because the Paladin was now dead, the anti-magic shell went off, the telekinesis started back up, and the trap automatically reset itself.

(One guy wanted to do an automatic raise dead spell, and build a giant v-8 engine to power his castle, but he couldn't find enough Paladins.)

qcgreywolf
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Re: Mino Labyrinth

Post by qcgreywolf »

Really?! Out of all the clever people in here and most likely the large percentage of DM's, only 3 responses?

Boooooo, hiss.

qcgreywolf
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Re: Mino Labyrinth

Post by qcgreywolf »

To give you guys an idea of the mood I am going for, here is what I have done so far with about a days worth of labor. I have just barely begun to carve out the VBL, and only the NW corner and a little more has been fleshed out in detail, but I think you'll see the atmosphere I'm going for :)

P.S. If you are one of my players, Garth, Jade, Aelina, Ilyssa or Zoey, turn back now lest you see spoilers that I know you wish you wouldn't have seen and ruined.
Spoiler
Master/inheritor of this maze is a Necro Minotaur. I've got her character roughed out in Herolab, but I'll probably tweak her for impact. She'll probably be a level 5 wiz on top of her mind levels, but her spell book has been stolen by her ex-lover, so she only has a spell from each level still memorized.

Look for the big red arrow, thats where the PC's drop into the dungeon from the entrance tunnel.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Au0_G1cqyqi8gdcOFdGCTeiODe8Ixg

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aliasmask
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Re: Mino Labyrinth

Post by aliasmask »

I have a philosophy on traps. They're either an obstacle or something desirable to be worth the risk. Pit traps are easy and varied by what you can fill them with.. ie, 10ft of water and some undead. The more complicated puzzle traps can be fun but are a lot of work. One of my very first puzzle traps a very long time ago was a room with an ice floor. Below the ice was a staircase. Melting the ice would fill the area below with water but only seemingly by a foot (see above pit trap).

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