Library (Puzzle)
I've decided on the mechanism for how they get into the crypt level. An Indiana Jones style moving fireplace (which also cover/explain the void right in the center of the library), with two books on the desks at the south wall that need to be pulled
the first section is the library, which will be a gather-info puzzle, probably some sort of combo-lock with books as the 'buttons'.
Kurin, [11/28/22 4:06 PM] the first section is the library, which will be a gather-info puzzle, probably some sort of combo-lock with books as the 'buttons'.
The dungeon the players will be going through is located beneath a crypt, which itself is located beneath an abandoned library, and the temple is a long-since-forgotten 'corrupted' temple of life. While normally temples of life are supposed to be focused on healing, propagation of life, nurturing (picture a massive lush garden full of exotic flowers) and consensual alterations (magically altering a living person to their desired appearance), this temple is dedicated to the opposite, causing death, decay, and the facsimile of life. The product of this temple is to produce undead armies for the purposes of war, but the temple itself is designed to test potential cultists to assure they are loyal to the cause, knowledgeable about the subject, and are physically and magically capable of performing the ritual, before they are allowed into the ritual chamber.
Kurin, [11/29/22 12:11 AM] plot-wise, the party was tasked to investigate weird sounds and smells coming from the library, which lays on top of a crypt, which itself is hiding the temple. The temple was recently activated, which explains the sounds/smells (undead)
Known by the party: Mayor of a nearby town has asked for help to investigate an abandoned library, in order to figure out where the creepy noises are coming from. The mayor has sent a few small groups in order to try to investigate, but none of them ever came back, and the noises have only gotten worse since.
Will be revealed: The library had been converted from a burned out church which, unbeknownst to the city who commissioned the conversion, hid a crypt beneath the church. The crypt itself was hiding the ruins of a long-forgotten corrupted life temple.
I've decided on the mechanism for how they get into the crypt level. An Indiana Jones style moving fireplace (which also cover/explain the void right in the center of the library), with two books on the desks at the south wall that need to be pulled
plot-wise, the party was tasked to investigate weird sounds and smells coming from the library, which lays on top of a crypt, which itself is hiding the temple. The temple was recently activated, which explains the sounds/smells (undead)
Crypt (Survive)
Loyalty Prechamber (Info)
Loyalty Chamber (Choose the correct Path)
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:19 PM] I'm not sure if I should go loyalty (to the corruption of Life) or something else.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:20 PM] Hmmmm, maybe it's the opposite of the prisoner dilemma
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:22 PM] Like there are 2 stands (or more) and the group has to divide randomly into groups. Then they are told that they can either condemn the other group to give themselves a boon but it will punish the other group in some way. Everyone gets a boon if they all vote to condemn each other because loyalty should be to the god/magic and not each other
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:25 PM] it's also awkward to come up with stuff, cause the trials need to be doable by one person, since the whole temple is set up to be for a single person to go through initiation rites for the cult.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:25 PM] Ah. Okay
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:25 PM] I love this idea though
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:28 PM] Um, same thing, different twist. Basically there is a really ugly/scary statue in the middle of the room representing the god/magic that promises to reward you if you accept it. You have the option of condemning it or accepting it. There are warnings on the wall basically saying all these horrible things that "could" happen to you if you accept it.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:29 PM] If you accept it, you get a blessing of temp HP and you go through, if you condemn it, your character becomes sickened in some way from gas filling the room and it let's you through
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:29 PM] The meaning of this is that "To condemn life is to condemn yourself. There will always be pain and suffering in one's life, but the strong make it through better in the end"
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:31 PM] that could work, yeah. Maybe some sort of barrier that only lets them through if they bear the curse.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:31 PM] Yeah, exactly!
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:32 PM] Or the door opens either way. Up to you, was just more of a metaphor for trusting even when stuff looks bad
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:32 PM] I like your barrier idea
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:35 PM] Maybe the curse causes your muscles to grow uncontrollably (JK)
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:35 PM] Yeah, maybe you can pass through one door to reject the offer, but doing so makes the rest of the temple harder, or you can pass through the other door and receive a curse, but it makes the rest of the temple easier. But the barrier prevents entry to either door until a decision has been made.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:36 PM] Oh! I like that!
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:36 PM] Like you accept, you end up posioned, but you get hints to how to solve puzzles.
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:37 PM] and to (slightly) railroad the group, choosing one path blocks the other, so the group can't split and be half and half.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:38 PM] Yeah!
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:38 PM] it could be a buff like that, though.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:38 PM] Maybe a good way to do that is to have it be a button press or something, so it is one choice that affects the whole group
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:39 PM] like, negative to con, but positive to one stat of the group's choice.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:40 PM] Like a lever that swings a portcullis between two doors so they're both closed, but teuning the lever one way opens one door and then the lever gets stuck, so it's a one-run-one-choice thing
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:41 PM] accepting adds to con but reduces another stat, rejecting reduces con but increases another stat.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:41 PM] Yeah! I like that! Definitely can be flavored as becoming sickly but getting a blessing
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:41 PM] I like that. Definitely can add for interesting role play as well
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:42 PM] yeah, lever can be flipped fully left or fully right, but anything in between makes both portcullises shut.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:43 PM] Exactly, and once it is fully in one direction, the door opens and the lever locks up
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:44 PM] I'd like to make it so the players can flip it back and forth until they make a decision, and it's not until they walk through that the lever flips back to the middle position and slams the portcullis behind them.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:47 PM] Pressure plate on the floor or maybe there is another door/portcullis at the end of each hallway to acts like an airlock. It causes the portcullis to close behind them, gas/curse/whatever to be released on the group, and then the one in front opens
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:49 PM]
- nod* yeah, just trying to make sure the group can't exploit things. Like, this could still be exploited, they could pull the lever and one walks through, triggers it, and then the next person pulls the lever, walks through, etc.
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:49 PM] but I don't think they'd consider that option.
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:50 PM] Yeah
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:51 PM] Maybe if you want to prevent exploiting, you have each room have a detect life spell in it that causes it to reset once the room is empty
Squeaks (They/Them), [11/30/22 1:51 PM] So basically the choice is made once everyone leaves the room
Kurin, [11/30/22 1:52 PM]
- nod* yeah, that's definitely a good idea
Like, it's not detecting how much, it's just a basic logic thing of
"If life in room = yes, than keep trap active"
"If life in room = no, than reset trap"
Prowess Prechamber (Info)
Prowess Chamber (Activate the Sigil)
Trust Prechamber (Info)
Trust Chamber (Trust Allies)
Acid Trap, which slowly fills while you hold down the lever. Once sufficiently filled (acid lapping at your toes) it greedy-cup siphons out, unlocking the door for a length of time.
A large pit with a stone pillar right in the center. The very bottom of the pit looks to have a shallow pool of acid. And in the acid, is what appears to be a lever. The portcullis leading forward is shut and is far too heavy to lift. The portcullis from the doorway they entered is open, but looks similarly heavy. The room has a bunch of levers all around the perimeter. When the players pull a lever, the portcullis behind them slams shut, and the pit starts to slowly fill with more acid. Pulling another lever, the acid fills a bit further. This repeats for every lever. None of them are right. However, once ALL of the levers have been pulled, the pit will fill far enough to hit the siphon point, draining the acid completely, allowing access to the first, covered lever. Pulling that will open the forward portcullis for 30 seconds, reset all the other levers, and start pouring acid back in to 'reset' the room.
Knowledge Prechamber (Info)
Knowledge Chamber (Know the subject)
Select all of the toxic/deadly plants. Wrong answers cause hidden trapdoors to open (empty pit)
Ritual Prechamber (Rest?)
Ritual Chamber (Survive)
Assemble the Corpseflower?
MISC there's 3 Sarseian languages. Low Sarsi (essentially Common), High Sarsi (essentially modern-day latin, used for religious rituals) and Precursor, which the Sarseians cannot speak, and have only managed to translate a couple words.
Low Sarsi is just going to be common for the purposes of campaigns set in Sarsei. High Sarsi would need someone fluent in it, or a codex to translate it, etc. Precursor is undecryptable.
I had originally planned something like this. Already-initiated members can essentially use the back door to get to the ritual room (and maybe oversee the trials to make sure someone doesn't cheat)
I'm also considering giving the players like, a key or something, for every 'correct' answer they give, and if they get all the keys, they get something to make the final boss easier (though I'd have to spin the object as if the final boss doesn't exist)
Can definitely have the traps of the trial be avoidable if you solve riddles
Like Last Crusade
So the setting is a homebrew world I'm creating, and the campaign is a themed multi-shot dungeon delve to help immerse the players in the world that I'll be running a more 'open world' campaign in later. The world is early-industrial alternate, with magic which has spread throughout the entirety of society. The world is a furry-heavy semi-hubworld (individuals drawn from their respective planes and stranded on the already-populated world)
The dungeon the players will be going through is located beneath a crypt, which itself is located beneath an abandoned library, and the temple is a long-since-forgotten 'corrupted' temple of life. While normally temples of life are supposed to be focused on healing, propagation of life, nurturing (picture a massive lush garden full of exotic flowers) and consensual alterations (magically altering a living person to their desired appearance), this temple is dedicated to the opposite, causing death, decay, and the facsimile of life. The product of this temple is to produce undead armies for the purposes of war, but the temple itself is designed to test potential cultists to assure they are loyal to the cause, knowledgeable about the subject, and are physically and magically capable of performing the ritual, before they are allowed into the ritual chamber.
The life temple had been reactivated by a single cultist that had discovered legends of the ruins of the temple and had secretly gone down to investigate it, reactivating it in the process. The cultist did not understand the rituals involved in the reactivation, or the purpose of the temple, and is now unwillingly providing his own life force in order to fuel the ongoing ritual, which is reanimating the dead, and creating a massive abomination.
current idea is having a room filled with pictures, with several of the pictures of something that contains some form of poison/toxic substance, etc (like a peach/peach pit, nightshade plant, and so on), and the party has to pick only the toxic pictures.
it's going to be a reflavored Corpse Flower. Rather than a plant, it's going to be a corrupted mass of body parts with an unfortunate would-be-cultist at its heart, still clinging to life.
lore-wise, a young naive curious person stumbled on the back door of the temple, managed to guess the code for the lock, and found the ritual chamber, but the back door caved in and trapped him. (thus why the main entrance is untouched and there's still hostile creatures within) Only way out was to try and perform the ritual. only problem, the ritual requires two people and he didn't know that. So the ritual went bad and he's stuck as part of the monster he was trying to create.