Adventuring in Ancient Ruins
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I'd like to see more IC knowledge on the Netherese and such in the ruins.
It's more fun I think to find out these things ingame, and it can give people more of a reason to go out and find IC lore. That's not something that is special to the Ruins, but something that I'd like to see in every area a bit more.
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More leftover gizmos that do random things. Like Rumtum's machines or the old lab in v3ish that turned people into zombies. Netherese ruins should have stuff that no one quite understands today, capable of doing neat things (or very bad things) outside of the norm.
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@BlankStare5:
More leftover gizmos that do random things. Like Rumtum's machines or the old lab in v3ish that turned people into zombies. Netherese ruins should have stuff that no one quite understands today, capable of doing neat things (or very bad things) outside of the norm.
I like this!
Though if the bad things are very bad, few bother with the risk. I'd say that many fun things, some awesome things and a few bad things that can be easily recovered from.
At the end of the day, the fun things and awesome things need to be worth the exploring.
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Yeah, there's a few things lying about, but more is always awesome. Feel free to post super awesome suggestions (use a security ticket if you really want only the DM team to see it so as not to spoiler it if it makes it into the module) and it might happen when a DM gets the time. I had a bunch of plans (including an in game means of… creating a well known illegal item or two) for stuff like this but have never got around to making any of it. For this stuff to be good, it generally needs unique scripts which takes time, and uses resources, which means it has to be balanced against 'is it worth it?'
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Could use a few more ideas/suggestions–-especially if one encountered a magical but cursed garden inside these ruins.
I'm so low on ideas, I may toss out some custom loot for the best one I get!
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Can't go wrong with Weeping Angel-like monsters. They don't move if you face them. Give them really high stealth or invisibility until they hear the party, then prepare to strike. But seems like an ass to code.
Puzzle: Make a gap the party needs to get across. The solution is to use their water canteens on some seeds or something to make vines or roots grow across the gap?
Include a maze with one-way passages, like cliffs you can jump down safely, but no (easy) way back up.
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oooh weeping angels, scariest Dr Who monster ever :-)
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Places that the players can easily utilize for their own needs: Good examples are the room in the ruins (near the lab) that has three doors and an altar - perfect for a ritual and offers some privacy. Likewise, near the chasm, the ziggurat-like large pedestalthingie with wild magic area on it - More of these.
A heavily overgrown garden area, with plant-like creatures - Overgrown because of the influence of strange magic seeping into the ground, making the spells cast in the area stronger (empowering certain spells, certain schools, certain classes' spells, etc). Include clues as to what this strange power might be, and who tried to harness it.
A ruin-like maze designed to protect the inner sanctum hidden within. Consists of narrow corridors and small rooms separated by fences - To get through, the party needs to split into two (or three) parts and communicate with each other to get further in (as in, 1 person pulls a lever to open the door for the second group, and the second group pulls the next lever to let the one person get further, or levers that need to be pulled at the same time.)
Inner sanctum/Laboratory - More clues to the strange power that empowers casters. Area is wildmagic zone, but only in such way that spells cast may be turned into their alterations - wizards and sorcerers would likely seek this out to aid in researching spell alterations. This would be a nice, tangible reward and reason for a mage to go there more than once, and if the trip is suitably hard/puzzle/dangerous, it can't be done alone.
A disaster opens up part of the old ruins/sewers, exposing an area where a necromancer/cultist used to practice their rituals. Area mildly negatively infused, causing small damage to living creatures over time (something like 1d6 dmg per minute - enough to become a problem in the long run, but merely an annoyance for short visit), and causing corpses to rise (undead to spawn, and PC corpses to reanimate if possible). Litter around clues hinting at various old PC characters from the servers past as to who's influence might linger in the cursed ruins. Bonus points if the undead in the area are actually part of a necromantic hive-mind bent on sacrificing living creatures that wander down into the dungeons in an effort to complete a ritual to ressurrect/animate their long dead master.
A hidden, ruined temple/shrine in the forrests/mountains/caves - a small hideout like place, maybe with a small holding cell, and some bedrolls on the floor for sleeping. Include a proper-like altar, and clues as to what (several different) dark faiths have used the place to practice their arts while being persecuted by the populace. Not necessarily an actual claimable base, just a small hideout. Preferrably make entrance not extremely hard, but require something evil-aligned PC's would be more inclined to do (require bloodstone use to enter, cast negative energy spell, rebuke undead, require prayers to dark evil entities, etc).
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Sacrificial Altar
If a creature is subdued using .npcsubdue and killed within range of the altar using a sacrificial dagger, various random effects can be triggered. Ranging from having some beneficial spells cast on you, to a special item being dropped, or even, rarely- gaining a lesser star pact. But you also might become cursed, level drained, or even have a powerful abberation show up and want to eat you, depending on how it rolls.
The more powerful critter you sacrifice, the more powerful the rewards- or negatives. Use with caution.
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@BlankStare5:
Sacrificial Altar
If a creature is subdued using .npcsubdue and killed within range of the altar using a sacrificial dagger, various random effects can be triggered. Ranging from having some beneficial spells cast on you, to a special item being dropped, or even, rarely- gaining a lesser star pact. But you also might become cursed, level drained, or even have a powerful abberation show up and want to eat you, depending on how it rolls.
The more powerful critter you sacrifice, the more powerful the rewards- or negatives. Use with caution.
I like this.
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With the flooding of so much land around the Arabel region, I would hope this opens up some opportunities to seek out some of these flooded Ancient Ruins .
I would like to see some break thought with Underwater breathing.
I know we have a very expensive helm that can be purchased, but I was thinking something more accessible or cheaper.
Some type of leaf/plant that aids in the use of breathing underwater for a longer period of time. ( maybe a Druid could research/uncover such winks )
Maybe a spell or potion development to be used across the board, both arcane and cleric options.
This would open up quest ideas with water creatures and different storylines, using what we have in the game.
An example would be a Druid using his animal form into a shark or such. Just a thought :)
Items would be needed for use underwater or work better underwater environment.
I guess we already have the island to use as well, to setup the storyline for the quest and the existing underwater water area between the islands.
If you have some older areas that where lost to the floods, these could be updated to fit the underwater setting or just start fresh.
You could have a good level ranges for these from level 1 to 10.
Just my thoughts
RD
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Some more underwater areas would be neat, more somber Netherese ruins areas with unknown lore/mysteries would also be cool as heck. Think Stargate Atlantis :P
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I think it might be nice if you threw in a couple of placeables that allowed people to use Lore or Spellcraft to figure out or explain bits of lore about them. It allows the sages and storytellers of the world to actually be sagely and tell stories without a DM around.
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I think it might be nice if you threw in a couple of placeables that allowed people to use Lore or Spellcraft to figure out or explain bits of lore about them. It allows the sages and storytellers of the world to actually be sagely and tell stories without a DM around.
Um…... there is :)
Not just in the ruins either.
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Aside from portals (which are wizard- and bard-specific, and therefore only work with a small part of all the sages and storytellers), I've only ever encountered them in the damp caves quest.
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There's loads of placeables that require a language to read, but if you don't have the language, but have decent lore (or in some cases, other skills) then you can get a partial translation.
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There's loads of placeables that require a language to read, but if you don't have the language, but have decent lore (or in some cases, other skills) then you can get a partial translation.
Arent all of those in Netherese, a dm approved language?
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There's loads of placeables that require a language to read, but if you don't have the language, but have decent lore (or in some cases, other skills) then you can get a partial translation.
Huh. Yeah, I know those, although my character has had 15+ Lore for a while now and never gotten a partial. That might be intentional, though, I don't know your standards for 'decent'.
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Sounds unlucky there bud, there's a d20 roll involved as well, but yeah, the DM sets the DC so it could be anything.
And no, not all of them are netherese (though that's probably likely in the ruins), and like I said, you can gain a partial translation from a roll even without the language.
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I'm 100% sure the DCs for these are too high. My level 9-10 wizard with skill focus lore and identify tried multiple times to read them (If they're the same ones I'm thinking of) and I never once got a partial translation.