Disturbing Signs of Adventurers Dying Horribly
Disturbing Signs of Adventurers Dying Horribly
Disturbing Signs of Adventurers Dying Horribly
The PCs will soon be entering their first "Megadungeon". And I want to emphasize how dangerous this environment is - not by throwing them into meatgrinder fights, but by having them come across the remains of earlier adventurers who died horribly. And I could use some suggestions from others!
Here are the rules:
First, describe the scene - whatever the PCs are seeing.
Second, describe what actually happened in case the PCs investigate and make some successful skill rolls, use divinatory magic, and so forth. Here is an example:
1. The PCs come across a chain mail which has seen some battle damage but is largely intact, as well as the blade of a handaxe. Both are covered by a thin green-white residue. Searching further, they come across a belt buckle and a small number of coins, all of which are likewise covered in residue.
(A gelatinous cube came across the body of an adventurer, digested everything organic, and left the metal parts behind.)
Adapted from one of the best dungeons I've ever come up with and run:
The entrance is marked "You will never find what you are looking for". Ideally, the players believe some macguffin is deep inside.
Inside the entrance, the walls are unadorned, solid, black. There are no lights. It is pitch black inside, and whatever lights the players bring don't seem to illuminate as much as they should. It's also freezing cold. It quickly becomes a maze of hallways, rooms, stairways, and intersections of all the same cold, black. They may find the frozen remains of previous adventurers that entered. They don't look like they died from violence. Just exposure to the cold, and maybe starvation.
Have the players map it themselves, and slowly make the layout make less sense. Have hallways loop back into what should be another room. Turn around to go back to the big room, and they find a small round room instead. And always the freezing cold gnaws at them.
The mechanic is
The players had a blast with it. I was so proud of them that they figured it out.
You're evil