Dec 14 Challenge Dead Dragon's Treasure a 5-Room Dungeon

[Bogie]

I noticed that one of the secret doors in room 4 was the wrong size so I fixed that also.

### Latest WIP ###


And finally here are the room descriptions:

5 Room Dungeon - Dead Dragon's Treasure

The great dragon Artogra left behind a huge treasure when he died, or so the story goes. How to get to it, now that's the hard part. Anyone who knows where it is is not talking, IF anyone knows, that is. So, you were more than amazed when Tyrian found that old parchment map in the library. Fame and fortune awaits!

Behind the cave entrance is a short winding tunnel that ends in a locked & bolted door. This lock is 20% harder to open than normal.

Room 1 "Entrance Guardian"
Behind the door is a 25' x 25' room with 6 statues and 1 door to the north. As soon as anyone approaches within 10 feet of the northern door the guardian statues will activate. There are many possible guardians that can be used depending on the level of the party. The two statues by the door could be Caryatid Columns, the two by the entrance could be Helmed Horrors, or one or all of them could be Gollems, Stone, Brass, and Steel/iron.
Once the party has defeated the guardians they will find that the door has no handle or lock. It is nearly impossible to break down, it will not open to a common knock spell, in fact only very high level magic has any chance of succeeding. An observant party memeber may notice that the compass on the stone table (or dais) is not aligned properly with true north. Turning the compass to point true will open the door.

Room 2 "Puzzle or Role Playing Challenge"
There is a door immediately to the left, but straight ahead is room 2. This room is 15' x 15' with 3 alcoves. Each alcove has a treasure chest, each chest is guarded by a cat. The one on the left looks like a house cat, to the right is a cheetah, and to the north is a leopard. Behind the leopard is another door.
The animals are a type of guardian familiar. Each will protect it's own treasure. They start as a house cat. Once killed it will instantly reappear as a bobcat. When that is killed it will reappear consecutively as a cheetah, then a leopard, a panther, a mountain lion, a tiger, a lion, and finally a smilodon/sabre-tooth. It will then reappear as a cat again and start the cycle all over. The trick they have to figure out is that the creatures cannot be killed. The only way past them is to trap or immobilize them somehow. There is a pit in the center of the room.
The chests contain suitable treasure, decent value, but not to exciting.

Room 3 (the door to the left before rm 2) "Red Herring"
There really is no reason to go in here, but the large lever will draw them in. As soon as anyone approaches within 5 ft of the lever an iron wall will slam down over the whole eastern wall, blocking the way out. A deep, ominous voice will start to count down from ten. ( The GM should do this out loud, it will add to the tension level). When the lever is pulled the countdown stops. The relief is short as it soon starts again, this time beginning at 9, next time at 8 etc. The quickest way out though is to let the count down proceed to 0. At that point, the wall opens, letting them out.

Room 4 "Climax, Big Battle or Conflict"
In the northern arm of this + shaped room is a raised dais. On the wall behind it is a large "animated" tapestry of a great dragon. The dragon looks right at them. In a deep rumbling voice the tapestry speaks to them: You are the first adventurers to ever make it this far, how unfortunate for you. You have battled your way past my guardians looking for great treasure, only to find DEATH! Suddenly, 4 secret doors open and the party is attacked by 4 skeleton warriors ( 1 in each little room) or 4 Death Knights, or 8 Death Knights depending on how powerful the group is. If even more challenge is needed, the tapestry dragon can breathe a cone of fire doing 10 D 6 damage 3 times/ day.

Once all these opponents have been defeated, the party may find the secret door behind the tapestry. It leads to room 5.

Room 5 "Plot Twist"
The final room is a large cavern which contains the "dead" dragon's treasure. While there certainly is a lot of treasure here, the dragon is only sleeping, not dead. It is buried under the treasure & is not seen at first.
The enormous dragon will awaken if any treasure is touched.
There are several possible scenarios here
1, The dragon simply attacks the group.
2, The dragon stands up, says "This is great! All I have to do is plant those fake "Dragon Treasure Maps" and silly adventureers keep coming to feed me." The dragon attacks (it should be a big nasty dragon).
3 The dragon stands up, says "I have slept to long, thanks for waking me. I am starving, I'm going to go eat the nearest village, then I'll come back and have you for desert. Stay where you are and don't touch my stuff." The dragon then flies out of a large hole in the ceiling. What will the party do? The door they came in through is no longer there. There is a pool, maybe that has a way out.

[Bogie]

Just realized that Tainotim and I both titled our entries as "December 14" OOPS! We would appreciate it if one of the CL's or Admins could change that to "December 2013" for us.
Thanks

[KenG]

Looks great Bogie

[Neyjour]

Thanks Neyjour. I toned down the saturation of the border so it blends in a little better. How does it look now?

The reduced saturation looks much better now, IMO. Nice work on the room descriptions as well!

[Cunning Cartographer]

I like the look of the map overall, thought I think maybe throwing a subtle pattern over the borders might look nicer, or tattering the edge so it looks like it is on cloth or parchment, etc. From the perspective of aesthetics, the map looks nice, from the perspective of it being a dungeon battlemap.. hmm.. slightly underwealming. I like the ideas, I think the biggest issue for me (as a long time DM) is that the rooms themselves aren't particularly exciting to have combat it. Very simple shapes, no real environment changes (ledges, columns, cover, etc.) so each fight would probably amount to the same "fighting in the middle of the room" type scenario. So as far as actual looks, then it's great, for design some more interesting shaped/styled rooms would have made this a real triumph.

[Bogie]

Thanks Yospeck, good ideas. I texturized the border, put the compass in room 1 up on a large stone table, added a pit to room 2, 2 stone benches to room 4, and a pool in room 5.

### Latest WIP ###


See post 11 for room descriptions.

[Cunning Cartographer]

A lot better. As soon as I'd see that pit in that room I'd be like "Ohhhh ****.... it's gonna go down in here.."