| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Odin Highhammer |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 09:58:39
Hi guys,
I am looking to get my players into a fallen enclave looking for a mystical MacGuffin.
To reduce the amount of work needed for this I was wondering if there was ever an adventure that had a map with descriptions of a fallen enclave, either sideways or upside down.
One that is sunk in the ground could also work, but I really like the idea of a sideways/upside down dungeon crawl.
Thanks in advance. |
| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Markustay |
Posted - 30 Nov 2016 : 15:46:43
Find a city map you like (just google 'fantasy maps' or some-such), and then tilt it, using PS, GIMP, etc. Since the surface area would be buried in sand (probably), your players would most-likely have to go through the city's old sewers (which would connect to the basements of buildings, naturally).
There is an adventure in Dragon #88 (by Roger Moore) called The Door from Everwhere, which details a Netherese 'Nexus' in the Stormhorns, in the fallen fortress/settlement of Blister. If you don't want to use Blister itself (which was completely ransacked by a Kobold horde some 1700 years ago), the Nexus leads to over a dozen different locales in The Realms (former enclaves/forts/labs of the Nethrese). The module only details where eight of them go, and the others are left up to the DM (so there's your 'way in' to a buried city). You could even run the adventure to get them there - its starts in the Stonelands, with another ruin that the Nexus leads to (or vice-versa).
There are some maps, but none of Blister itself, unfortunately.
EDIT: And for some crazy reason, the whole idea of 'buried ruins' got me thinking about one of my favorite locales in Fallout 4 - the Quincy ruins. Its a town partially submerged, so you can't just 'walk around' at street level - there are walkways built between the upper floors of buildings, or you could just go underwater (which gives you radiation) and walk up the stairs. At lower level you really have to do the sneak thing (the place is crawling with thugs), and get up high, but when your high level its fun to just walk/swim through the muck into the buildings and use the stairs, and bull-rush the baddies who aren't expecting a street-level attack.
One of my favorite parts of that area: There is a note from another group of 'raiders' that says "welcome to the neighborhood" in a threatening manner - I love that all the 'ebil' factions (just about everyone you haven't made friends with) hate each other as well - sometimes you can 'kite' one group into another and just watch the fireworks. I've always wanted to use/see more of that vibe in a TT RPG. |
| Odin Highhammer |
Posted - 30 Nov 2016 : 11:20:04
quote:
Originally posted by SaMoCon
Sorry, Odin Highhammer, even if I did still have that adventure you were going to have to rewrite almost everything to fit your own ideas and for what your players would consider a good time. Besides, your better off not having to shoehorn the important stuff into someone else's write-up instead of taking a few ideas from others and making them fit into your own game.
No need to be sorry :)
I was prepared to sit down and make this was just checking out if anything pre-existing was about.
I think I might look at Empire of Shade adventure and pull the rooms and ideas from that, but place it in a sideways or upside down mannor. Since the inhabitants there seem to be phaerimm and beholders, the open spaces and gravity defying rooms should be interesting to play through. |
| SaMoCon |
Posted - 30 Nov 2016 : 10:09:54
Two computers ago I wrote an adventure into the suspended upside-down castle of Chelimber. As you mentioned, transitioning rooms was harder because door arches impeded movement like low walls, but I also forced an initial skill check for Balance that imposed a lasting penalty due to the bobbing nature of the place. The backs of stairs were more like inclined slopes that made footing more treacherous for both the slipping factor and the fact that the architecture was designed for the weight to be born opposite of what its decayed structure was designed to hold. But a fallen enclave would have it worse - decayed magical effects that are probably more warped with the deaths of two more goddesses of magic, an architecture that has suffered a catastrophic fall, an upending of the direction in which it was originally designed to rest and hold weight, and the neglect of thousands of years that would rot supporting beams, crack stone, and crumble mortar.
Personally, I would consider most of the layout to be rubbled and collapsed rooms that anything inhabiting the place would have been creatures with burrow as either primary or secondary in its form of movement. Magical traps might still work as the long dead inhabitants might have been deeply worried about spying or intrusion to the point of having contingency spells to counteract divinations, latent conjurations to summon defending creatures, and magical constructs that were hardy enough to survive the downfall (in whatever state of remaining health). There would also be a natural ecology that would fill in the niches with scuttling bugs, mosses, funguses, and rodents that breed, feed, and try to crowd out other things in the protected spaces. Depending on the capabilities of the group I would include ancient undead or merely opportunistic scavengers.
I would suggest figuring out the changes to the rules the environment causes to game play, having your descriptions down for how things are different from a right-side up world as viewed by your players' PCs, and then just running your dungeon like any other right-side up scenario because those first two things are really all that will be different to your players for the game. I know, very unromantic, especially considering how cool the idea is and the effort it takes to answer all the questions that arise around it. We make the game for our players and, ultimately, they decide what is interesting about the game. Are they going to be more interested in the archeology of delving a ruin or the money value of the treasures they rob from the place? Do they want to know the paleontology of the sapient creatures living there or are beings just obstacles to overcome for the goal?
Sorry, Odin Highhammer, even if I did still have that adventure you were going to have to rewrite almost everything to fit your own ideas and for what your players would consider a good time. Besides, your better off not having to shoehorn the important stuff into someone else's write-up instead of taking a few ideas from others and making them fit into your own game. |
| Odin Highhammer |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 22:37:03
I am imagining most of the enclave to be carved downward, so it would be the basement and lower parts of the city that they explored. So stairs and such would remain intact in much the same way we can still walk around in ancient places on earth.
For big halls exists would exist in the roof and they would be filled up with.. something. Steps would be smooth, as they are the roofs of halls, or maybe just deep drops. Doors might be so far up the wall that massive effort would be invested into opening them. But portcullises would be super easy.
Starting up with this idea, what modifications would creatures that inhabited such a place bring to it. Big halls are now maybe fighting pits? They lay out rope to climb the stairs.
This could again be even more absurd if we start working with an enclave formed like Eileanar, where anti-gravity and portals were common. The perspective of something that was designed to work as an antigravity area but no longer has the anti-gravity, but now its turned upside down?
This is doable with a few afternoons of writing, but I was hoping someone had done it before me and I could save a few hours of work. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 21:24:35
After a thousand years what distinguishes a rightside up ruin from an upside down ruin.
The fixtures and fittings would have all rotted (or smashed on impact). The stairs would possibly have crumbled. It might look a bit odd that doorways are nearer to the ceiling than the floor and windows likewise.
Other than that I can't think of anything immediate that would distinguish the more normal areas of an enclave |
| Odin Highhammer |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 21:21:43
Any Netheril like flying city Enclave would be good. Something like Akintaer or Spiel is the right size and "culture". No gimmicks are required (like Shade).
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Found a copy of Empire of Shade, The Crypt of Augathra the Mad seems to fit my bill for lore, but it's presented like a normal dungeon map, all right side up :-/
I am starting to think that making a sideways or upside down dungeon might present all sorts of problems.
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| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 16:58:27
The anauroch empire of shade adventure (or one of the other two books in the series) had a brief glimpse of the enclave of synod. |
| Hoondatha |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 16:54:04
What kind of enclave? Nothing comes instantly to mind for maps of dungeons on their sides, but knowing the context might help some. |
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