The Quick:
In the comments below, post what happens to my party when they try to leave the dungeon via the lake and/or what happens if they come in contact with the water.
In that same comment, let me know if you want a copy of The Undercroft (shipped free to anywhere in the world) or, if you already own it, the Secret Treasure Envelope (RPG/game related things, also shipped to anywhere in the world) or "either." I will pick two winners from all usable entries.
Game night is Tuesday, so only entries in by Monday (whenever I get off work and start planning for the game) will be valid - so get them in this weekend!
The Long:
I'm currently running Psychedelic Fantasies Module 1: Beneath the Ruins for my players. This is one of the few dungeons my party has encountered since my campaign consists almost entirely of LotFP modules.
Here are some important notes that relate to this contest:
The party walked down a set of humid, cramped stairs and found themselves on a beach of black sand, surrounded by hot fog.
An underground lake is before them, and a man in a small boat is floating near shore.
He offers to take them across the lake to the "deep halls" in exchange for a gold and their true name.
After about 10 minutes of rowing through thick fog, the shore on the other side of the lake becomes visible.
The boatman was crazed, and didn't provide them much info. When asked how they'd get back, he said something like, "I'll be here...when you're ready."
I described the water as inky black with a slight odor of sulfur.
The party is nearing the end of the adventure and are discussing their plight - "How are we going to get across the lake?"
Your challenge:
1) What happens when my party travels across the lake (via makeshift raft or the boatman)?
2) What happens if they touch the water?
I'm going to create a randomized chart of all usable responses and roll on it - such will be the plight of my party.
Here's what I have so far:
What happens when they row through fog?
1) They make it safely back to shore and continue on with their campaign.
2) They end up in Carcosa.
3) They end up on The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.
4) They end up on Razira.
5) They end up in Narcosa.
What happens when they touch the water?
1) Nothing (it's just creepy).
2) They gain a random mutation from The Metamorphica.
3) They slowly transform into a Random Esoteric Creature.
The Why:
I ordered a copy of The Undercroft back in August, but after many weeks it hadn't arrived. Daniel Sell kindly sent me another copy which arrived in a matter of days. Yesterday I finally got that first copy! It's an awesome 'zine, and I highly recommend trying to win one here if you don't already own it. I'm only offering up the second "Secret Treasure" prize for those who already own a copy (and I thought it might be nice for Daniel Sell to have a chance to win something, too).
Some people already provided some "free" responses on G+. I will automatically count them as being part of this contest, although if you are one of them and want to update your response, feel free to post it here.
Thanks!
UPDATE
Thank you for your participation! First off, here's a word document with a table of my ideas and the entries from here and G+:
What happened to my players?
Since one of them had their foot shot off by a laser blast (when a monster rolls a crit in my game, I roll on a body part location and that body part, if unarmored, is permanently destroyed - no healing can help it) the players decided they really needed to get back. I could tell that they meant it this time (at a previous time they just tried calling for the boatman "to see" if he would come back, but they didn't actually want to leave the dungeon yet...) so I rolled on the table and got:
The boatman is frantically rowing towards the shore. As
they approach, the fog rolls closer on a cold draft. It gives a scent of faint
electricity, as if the air is charged and burnt.
"Hurry!" the boatman says "the dreams are
coming!"
If the party rushes (requiring a character to roll under
their dexterity score if they are more than lightly encumbered in order to make
it in time), they make it onto the boat in time, and the lantern's light keeps
the fog away.
All players made it into the boat except for our unlucky M-U (who already has a gopher mouth, checkered skin, crippling constipation once a day and leaves a trail of white slime wherever he walks).
Any characters who don't succeed have a dream from the
following table (all have the same dream)
M-U's dream:
4. The characters are standing in an empty temple of
grey marble with a large golden dish on a pedestal. Inside the dish is a
reflective liquid. When the characters look at it, their eyes vanish from their
head, floating in the pool, providing them with a view of their own screaming
(or eerily calm, DM's choice), eyeless faces. The characters awaken flailing,
giving a chance of upsetting the boat.
When he awoke, he capsized the boat, knocking everybody into the water.
Lucky for the players (although they don't know it yet) they received one of the few good things from the list for touching the water: "A spell-like ability."
---
Now, for the winners!
Here's the list:
1 Joshua
2. Onno
3. Marc G
4. Venger Satanis
5. lumacca
6. Jess Newman
7. Samwise Seven RPG
8. Timothy Franklin
9. Forrest Aguirre
10. Reroll
Winner of The Undercroft = Jess Newman
Winner of Top Secret Prize = Marc G
Final Update
Prizes have been sent - thanks to everybody for your participation, and I highly recommend picking up an issue (or three) of The Undercroft!
What happens when they row through the fog?
ReplyDelete- Anyone they've ever killed floats above the water staring in mute accusation.
- They age 4d6 years.
- Their shadows never stand at the right angle again.
What happens when they touch the water?
- They find it to be fine black rum, if a little sweet.
- Level drain.
- The droplets disconcertingly sink into their skin, enter their blood, and whisper to them about murder until excorcised.
I like the shadows and droplets, Joshua. Nice!
DeleteEither, in response to your question by the way. It's been fun to read folks responses as the pop!
DeleteIf they pay the boatman to row them over, the reach the other side unharmed. If they row themselves, they will end up in either Quelong or some of the domains in Ravenloft, where they are trapped till they defeat the domains dark lord.
ReplyDeleteIf they touch the water, they hallucinate. They end up in a situation where they have to make a choice - they either can try a) to drag somebody back on board, risking drowning themselves, or b) tossing that person into the lake, thus ensuring the stability of the boat. If they choose b), there will be some minor cosmetical change (fingernails turning black or something like that). If they choose a) however, they will brush with death, gaining the ability to wail like a Banshee at will, but at the cost of 1 full hit dice permanently. If they die from using this ability, they will turn into an undead immediately and cannot be resurrected.
The fog gets thicker and thicker. When it finally clears, one of the party is missing. If the boatman wasn't there before, he is now. All he says when questioned is, "It appears [Name] wasn't ready." A small child of the same gender and race, dressed only in rags is on the other side. The child is a 0 level and has the stats of the missing character with the following changes: Str -2, Dex +1, Con -1, Wis -2, Cha +1. The child knows everything about the missing character, including where the missing character is [DM's choice]. The player of the missing character plays this child until the main character is found in suspended animation. At this point, a swarm of bats appears and starts attacking the child. Only when the child dies does the main character awaken.
ReplyDeleteThe body part that touches the water becomes red and scaly. Every day, the character makes a Death Saving throw. Upon a failure, the redness grows 1d4 inches closer to the character's chest. When the redness reaches the chest, a demon appears sporting the rest of the red scaly body and the character's missing body parts. Only the death of the demon or the character will cause it to disappear. It should be a tough demon and it will suggest the idea of killing the character instead.
I don't currently own The Undercroft
Thanks for doing this!
DeleteI just realized that I recently submitted something to The Undercroft, so it is nice that you are helping to promote it (yes, I am truly a space cadet for not putting 2 and 2 together earlier).
- Marc
Thanks for mentioning the Purple Islands! Also, I really dig Beneath the Ruins.
ReplyDeleteGood choice.
Ok, what happens when the characters come in contact with the water? They are overcome with the distinct impression of a lurid, purple-hued wizard's tower transmogrifying into a gargantuan, muculent worm with the face of [random PC's] mother. A bolt of lightning strikes the nauseatingly purple worm-tower, ending the vision.
Enjoy! ;)
Great idea! Ooh stuff to win...
ReplyDeleteThey can call the boatman from the shore, but he demands one 'special' item as payment, preferably something small like a ring for useful like a cloak.
If they travel via the boatman, they reach the other side safely but have their ears bent by his mad chatter.
If they find their own transport they have to contend with a guardian maybe formed from the esoteric monster generator, and once on shore again roll for where they end up as they emerge from the fog bank.
If they touch the water,
1. skin touching the water stains permanently black.
2. The water reaches up and tries to pull the character under the surface.
3. The water slicks over the character and is absorbed improving one of their stats by one, but leaving them tainted by demonic energy, and smelling faintly of sulphur.
4. The water forms a watery mirror image of the character, with identical stats and attacks, mirror character collapses if the not connected to the water, but re-forms if contact is reestablished.
Hope that helps,
The undercroft if I'm lucky..
The boatman is frantically rowing towards the shore. As they approach, the fog rolls closer on a cold draft. It gives a scent of faint electricity, as if the air is charged and burnt.
ReplyDelete"Hurry!" the boatman says "the dreams are coming!"
If the party rushes (requiring a character to roll under their dexterity score if they are more than lightly encumbered in order to make it in time), they make it onto the boat in time, and the lantern's light keeps the fog away.
Any characters who don't succeed have a dream from the following table (all have the same dream)
D6
1. They are rappelling down a mine shaft. Blood drips from the ceiling, and the impact of the drops echoes as it hits the bottom of the shaft.
2. They meet a child in a sunny meadow. At first the child is happy to see them and asks them to play, but becomes frightened and runs from them towards a forest. As the child reaches the edge of the woods, shadows from the trees coalesce into black feral dogs which tear the child to shreds. The child remains calm, with a look of relief on their face as they are devoured.
3. A large (2' diameter, 15' length) eel-like creature with translucent skin and faintly glowing bones and eyes swims below the surface of the water. It follows the boat the players are on. This continues for days, silently. The characters will not awake, nor will the boat reach the shore, unless the characters dive into the water and are eaten by the creature. For each 'day' of dreamtime that passes, spellcasters forget one random spell from their memorized spells, and other classes suffer 1 point of temporary Dex damage.
4. The characters are standing in an empty temple of grey marble with a large golden dish on a pedestal. Inside the dish is a reflective liquid. When the characters look at it, their eyes vanish from their head, floating in the pool, providing them with a view of their own screaming (or eerily calm, DM's choice), eyeless faces. The characters awaken flailing, giving a chance of upsetting the boat.
5. The characters 'awaken' and the boatman is gone. The boat is adrift, and nothing the characters do will move it. Before long the characters fall to bickering over rations and treasure, and are at each other's throats. Days pass, all rations are gone, and the PCs are starving. They must eat one of their own. After they do this, they awaken, but all their rations are gone, and the PCs are hungry. The boatman is there and their voyage continues.
6. The characters sleep blissfully and uneventfully, with dreams of a field of flowers. Upon reaching the other side, they cannot awaken unless struck for at least 3 damage. If all characters are asleep in this way, the boatman will awaken them. He has seen this happen before, and is unnerved.
If they touch the water or fall in
DeleteD4
1. The water is a syrupy, pale grey-blue. It will eat paper and fabric it comes into contact with. Other materials are unaffected.
2. Upon touching the water it freezes, ice spreading quickly from the point of contact until the entire lake is frozen. Characters trapped or frozen in the water must roll below their Str score to break free. The characters can walk on the ice, but the boatman will not accompany them.
3. Characters float in the water, but any attempt to move causes them to sink. They can be hoisted out of the water by anyone not in contact with the water safely, but there is a 25% chance per encumbrance level of the character in the water of upsetting the boat.
4. Although the boat moves through the water as through liquid, upon touching it the water feels solid and forms a reflection of whoever touches it, as clear as a mirror. When the character breaks this contact the reflection vanishes, and after a round the character's form begins to fade and become transparent unless the character re-establishes contact with the water. The same effect continues when the character leaves the boat, and the character will fade from existence in 1d100 rounds if they do not keep a flask of the water on them. This effect will persist until Dispel Magic or Remove Curse is cast on the character.
When this is done, it would make a great little article of a "trap" for the Undercroft as well. You're free to use my stuff in the article.
ReplyDeleteSo which one did you spring on them?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete