Saturday, December 18, 2010

Gygaxian Democracy #4: The Dead End


More fun with crowdsourcing...

The Dead End


It appears to be a dead end, which is impossible because you know the monster ran in here...

And, oh fuck, the door just closed behind you. And it won't open.

Show the players the image on the left (click to enlarge), this is where they are, the details are as follows...

A: The halfling knight's shield is real and can be used as a buckler. However, it was actually made from an ancient gong, and if struck it will summon d4 Chasme (demon fly) larvae, who will crawl out of the nearest body of water and move toward the sound s fast as they can.

(your turn)

19 comments:

mordicai said...

B. This helm can only be worn by a child or halfling, but if worn by a child it increases their Int to 20 & their alignment to reverse. It cannot be removed except by Remove Curse.

Zanazaz said...

C. The spear/lance, if moved in any way, will open a secret panel at W. which reveals a compartment which contains...?

biopunk said...

H. Seat of Assumed Authority

Anyone sitting in this finely crafted chair has the overwhelming sense that they, alone, should be making all decisions regarding the interests of party.

The seated character will not move from the chair, but will attempt to order all other party members (or monsters) to do as they bid. The character will not fight or physically defend themselves, instead they will rely on others to do their bidding.

This delusion will be dispelled two rounds after two spells are cast upon the chair or seated character. Two rounds later, the chair will be reset, and the next seated creature will be affected as described above.

biopunk said...

FYI: There are two G's & H's labeled on the DM's key.

Zak Sabbath said...

@biopunk

oh, thanks

Anonymous said...

W-the compartment, opened by (C) contains Five(5) Green Slime which will ooze out, one after the other, one per round.

Unknown said...

Neat, it's a 3d picture.

Um, anyway:

V) If this statue is tickled, the entire room will fill with a booming laughing noise which will get more and more hysterical as the players continue to tickle it. After ~5 minutes, the laughing will turn to coughing, then weezing, then hyperventilating, and then the sounds will stop completely.

H2) If this lamp is lit, all the players will feel much better about themselves, and must pass will checks ever 2 rounds in order not to decide to sit down and stop worrying about finding a way out or anything. Only extinguishing the lamp can end the spell.

Jim said...

All of the drawers below contain some condition, strange and wonderful. Only one drawer can be opened at a time. The situation created by the opening of the drawer must be resolved before another drawer can be opened.

i - The room fills with ice and snow; its a blizzard. The characters must get into a snowball fight to stop the blizzard and close the drawer. The last person to be hit with a snowball will gain a +1 to saves vs. cold.
Q - The room becomes preternaturally quiet. This quiet extends to a permanent silence spell that affects all characters in the room without a save. The drawer is filled with conch shells. Any character who takes a shell may activate it once per day to become perfectly silent. The sounds are absorbed into the shell and may be replayed later. The characters must write “noise” or “cacophony” or some other onomatopoeic phrase on the wall or floor of the room to cancel the spell and close the drawer.
K - Knowledge. Thousands of notecards on a myriad of topics will spew into the room. The next topic that each PC discusses will become a favorite and he/she will have exemplary knowledge of the topic. +1 or +10% on any check in that area. The DM should note the topics in secret and only reveal the bonuses when appropriate. The notecards need to be picked up and put back in the drawer in order to open a different drawer.

Brandon said...

T & W - The decorative, spiral "leg", W, of this shelved table can be turned to the right (clockwise) and to slowly open panel W. The mechanism of the leg is very smooth, but requires a little force. Anyone with STR greater than 13 may move it accidentally if physically examining the table, and anyone with STR 7 or lower will have to be very deliberate with it to make it move. It opens panel W slowly enough that it will not be apparent at first that anything has changed. Only persistence will open panel W enough to be noticeable. The movement of all pieces of this mechanism is relatively silent, showing find craftsmanship and somewhat recent oiling and maintenance. No magic is involved (the table is thus rooted to the floor and cannot be moved).

Panel W contains a thin, pewter circlet which, when worn, has a 25% chance of causing trapped objects to take on a faint, reddish glow, the strength of which is approximate to the level of danger posed by the trap (determined based on damage dealt, not complexity of mechanism). Glow should be hazy such as to not immediately be apparent to the wearer.

Sean said...

F- like the picture itself, is a markup of the room the PCs just entered. Touching anything in the picture has the same effect as touching it in the room. The left side, all positive effects are marked; the right side, negative. Treat it like a Deck of Many Things, but as a full room of options.

Unknown said...

E- regular drops of brackish, swampy water drip from the ceiling onto the little dude standing down here. He is all like "What the hell is th-", but he didn't get to finish because that shit will petrify you. Right in the face.

If someone de-petrifies him he will immediately say "-is shit!?", and then probably freak out a little.

He is an Nth level halfling thief, and he has the magic key to the room in his inside breast pocket, which he had already found and stolen. He will pickpocket and/or steal whatever he can whilst exuberantly proffering his thanks and gratitude before opening the door and leaving. No he won't join up with you. He might loot you later, if youre lucky.

Unknown said...

And GOD DAMMIT I made this post and the heads one doesnt seem to be accepting any more comments or something so im going to post it somewhere. I DONT EVEN CARE, ZAK. <3

Also, the internet is fucking with me. TrentB is indefinitely screwed on account of how google is a bunch of cunts. This is me now. I don't want to talk about it, it has been the most intolerable culmination to an unfun day.


...


Mask of Mischief
This head creates an avatar of the good Lords Mischief. This avatar will immediately admit that it is not the real head, but it will promise that it knows exactly where the real one is. It will even tell you, if you will just fetch it these components to create itself a new magical body. The components must be rare, and the quest to obtain them must be exceedingly dangerous. The point is that the adventurers die and never return, or at least stop looking for the real head. Obviously it doesnt reveal this, maintaining a facade of benevolence and charity. It just wants a body so it can go off and live in the forest!

If threatened with violence, it will offer items from its lordly wealth to placate the aggressors. If violence occurs, he will fight bravely, but submit at 80% hp loss. He will then admit, given the chance, that he doesnt know where the real head is, but he knows exactly where it isnt. If offered the name of a specific location (The ruins of Fort Fosser, Castellan Abbey, etc) he will be able to tell you that the head isnt there. If the actual location is said, he will know, and immediately say so, though he does not know it until someone says it to him.

During this time, he will try to create a situation from which he can escape, taking his body as far from everything as possible and never returning.



Mind of Malice
This head creates an avatar of the good Lords Malice. The avatar immediately creates an aura of Malice, causing anyone within the chamber to desire nothing but the pain and suffering of those around him/her. Similar to a confusion spell perhaps, but with more emphasis on pain and not just killing. Leaving the chamber ends the effect.

The avatar, when not being disturbed, will begin to create a crude map of the world using the bodies of those tortured and mangled beings left in its chamber. Ideally they are still alive, but steps must be taken to ensure they dont move around too much. This may require a lot of people and time. He will then place the eye of a living being on the map where the real head can be found. This may be difficult to locate amongst the gore. He will then spend his time trying to keep his map alive and in pain.

Something like that. Cursed internet.

Unknown said...

Also I'm getting a lot of errors trying to post comments recently, to do with length of the URL. URLs on this site to tend to get extremely long suffixes of random characters, im not sure if its just me or something else. I couldn't finish my post about the random heads (and i had some really good ones), and i just got it again now trying to post more. No idea why.

Also, this is why im using a new account (<- TrentB), since the internet is fucking with me. TrentB is indefinitely screwed on account of how google is a bunch of cunts. This is me now. I don't want to talk about it, it has been a most intolerable culmination to an unfun day.

thekelvingreen said...

O: If anyone can get up to this part of the wall, they will discover that gravity has changed, with this wall being the new floor. This new perspective may reveal new details about the room.

P: What appears at first to be merely a baroque decoration turns out to be a finely-carved relief map of another part of the game world, perhaps the location of some treasure or even stone head.

thekelvingreen said...

"even a stone head" obviously. Bloody computer.

Roger G-S said...

P: Serpent Panel. This panel is carved with a complicated, crossing and coiling serpent design, but the head and tail of the serpent are nowhere to be seen.

At three places a loop in the snake's "body" provides a hollow where an object can be inserted. Roll 1d6 to determine the snake's initial attitude, then:

If a blunt nonliving object is placed in the loop, it tightens, trapping the object, and the snakes attitude is +1.

If a living object is placed in the loop, the result is the same but attitude is +3.

If a sharp or pointy object is placed in the loop, it widens slightly and attitude is -2.

Determine other manipulations of the loop as pleasurable or unpleasurable to the "snake."

If attitude goes above 6, a snake head appears from the space below the carving, spits forth a hairball, and retreats. Inside the hairball is a small golden key that will help with one of the other areas.

If attitude goes below 1, the snake head appears and attacks someone standing within 5' of the carving; it is a 3 HD, 15HP, AC4 creature with a poison bite doing 1d4.

C'nor (Outermost_Toe) said...

Glass Desk (Actually a force prison): Upon opening it the players will release an entire miniature biosphere into the room. It was created by the mad wizard Dalinapa

IHaveTilFive said...

Cigar Closet - If anything star-shaped is placed into or against the star-shaped key hole, the closet will begin to rattle and shake. Smoke will issue from seams in the closet, and tobacco will be smelled from it. The door will open by itself in 2d6 rounds. If anyone bothers to listen against the closet, they will hear the mutterings of some small creature.

If the door is forced open before it opens by itself, a brownie smoking a stogie will look up at them, annoyed. "Well, I WAS gonna show you something cool, but the hell with you" he will say, then jump out of the closet and walk out of the room, turning invisible once he leaves the room. d4 dozen cigars will be found in the closet.

If the PCs wait until the door opens by itself, Charlie the Brownie looks out at them. "Hey there! Wanna see the good shit?" He will offer them a smoke of Shrieker Express, a rare strain of pipeweed. Anyone smoking a serving will be able to levitate as the spell for d4 rounds. This can be done once per day. An hour after smoking, a Wisdom save is rolled once an hour until passed. Failed rolls cause the victims to spend the next hour looking over their shoulders, jumping at the slightest sounds, and swatting the air at the "green demons" taunting them.

IHaveTilFive said...

Oh yeah, that was supposed to be letter N