The Very Bottom of the Bottom: Behind the Screen

Well, I guess my players have the Demonomicon now. If anything bad happens, I have no one to blame but myself. For now, they’re already regretting taking it, and I’m going to enjoy that good feeling while it lasts. I don’t know what practical uses it’ll serve in the campaign. While Kiaransalee erased all knowledge of Orcus from the multiverse, an artefact of the Demonomicon's level should be able to retain the facts of what happened, and that’s why the Demon Prince wanted to keep it hidden. There are few other ways in-game to relay this adventure’s considerable backstory.

The illusion of the corridor/forcefield to the void bamboozled the players very well – perhaps too well, because even with two hints from Vlaakith they nearly missed it. I gave 12-Bar inspiration for guessing the “opposite of belief”, and if I hadn’t done that, the party would probably have given up. The slog was not exactly fun. I'd probably just go for a neverending corridor next time, rather than something obviously dangerous.

The Black Diamond: If a player handles this for 10 minutes or longer, there’s a 50% chance (I like coin tosses) Orcus looks through it and attempts to summon both diamond and character to his side. DC 10 DEX save to drop it in time and not get teleported to Orcus. Otherwise, Orcus just watches and bides his time.

Prison Battle

I used 4 Visages (3 from the Balor room) and a Bone Golem from the Creature Codex to challenge the players. Given that this was the last room and encounter in the dungeon for the players, and just finding it had been a source of mild frustration, this wasn’t the best choice. If your players are in the same boat, I'd recommend fewer visages and some more obvious “boss” creature, or something the players can fight with different tactics. After so long in the dungeon, the way visages slow down combat had become very frustrating. I’d cut it to 1-2 visages. Sample illusions:

  • A bone golem breaks through the door to battle the heroes while the visages hide
  • The visages enable gravity in the room – upwards (run like the spell reverse gravity)
  • Ghosts swarm in and attack
  • A wall breach floods the chamber with negative energy
  • The prison guard releases the drow and tells him to flee, which he does at great speed. The visage stays to fight – but his illusory form is not in the same position as the visage’s true location.

The last one bought the visage who used it another 24 seconds of life. Well, unlife.

 

Overall this was a good dungeon. One thing not immediately obvious from reading it is that it features a surprising number of tricks that tempt players, before then inflicting death or some other deeply undesirable affect. The clone machine, the phylactery tank, the big diamond. It's very AD&D in that way, where a player's curiosity is punished if it goes beyond a certain ineffable level. Don't trouble the water. If your players find them all, don't be surprised if they end up traumatised and even more risk averse.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Outlands: Planar Rules and Encounter Table

Encounters Check for encounters three times a day by rolling a d100. For the first roll each day, there is a 35% chance of an encounter. If no encounter occurs, the chances of an encounter on the next roll increase by 30%. If an encounter does occur, the chance of an encounter on the next roll that day decreases by 30%, to a minimum of 35%. Check for encounters once a night, again with a 35% chance. More information about the Planescape-specific monsters on these tables can be found in the AD&D book Monstrous Compendium: Planescape Appendix II. The below table is a modified version of an Outlands encounter table found on reddit . Roll 2d10: 2. Earth-berg. Floating chunks of earth and a scarred landscape remain after a chunk of land from the Outlands recently slid into another plane. Echoes of the other plane may remain. 3. Lost Blood War Patrol. A ragtag group of demons (MM), devils (MM), or yugoloths (MM) that fought in the Blood War and was cut off from the rest of the...
Read more

DM Resources for Planescape and Dead Gods

Looking to unpick how to run Dead Gods in 5e D&D, but don't know where to start? Start here. First things first. Realistically, I wouldn't recommend Planescape or Dead Gods for a first-time DM. Trying to stay on top of the adventure and the world is enough work without having to learn the rules of the game as you go. If you and your group all played Planescape: Torment and loved the world and know it well, then that's a bit different. Otherwise, run a simpler adventure or two first, and get to the stage where you're confident with the rules. Done that? Okay. So, obviously you have the adventure itself . I have a ringbound Print on Demand copy, which is fantastic, although 9 pages out of the 170+ have scanned badly, and some are illegible. Some copies of the pdf have this problem and some don't, so check before you buy. Either way, the illegible pages are all detailed in this useful free 5e conversion by Jarred Caldwell. It seems as if this pdf was formally a pa...
Read more

One Step Forward: Behind the Screen + Spell Keys

Spell Keys Spell keys are an incredibly vague part of Planescape, but like portal keys, they can be anything from items, to words, gestures, thoughts, spells, or augmentations to spells so they work the way they should. All planar spellcasters would realistically know that spell keys exist, even if they don’t know specific keys. If you want to use spell keys for your arcane casters, the Outlands is a good place to introduce them. The Outlands are a common enough area that you can give players the answers without them having to invest too much time; and the keys for spells all have a very low cost. Maggots, fire, some water, a handful of dirt. Find my curated Outlands rules here . PCs whose faction alignment or background grants them access to a library or information network (Guvners, and perhaps Indeps and Anarchists?) will fare best at finding spell key information; but any adventurer can hang out at a planewalkers’ tavern like the Ubiquitous Wayfarer and try and probe others for...
Read more