My Autocrats of Night campaign, wherein the players were to delve the enemy megadungion and steal a Dragon Orb to break the power of the nasty dragon-riding raiders who have turned their face from the sun, has concluded! After 105 sessions I feel like I should organize some thoughts.
AD&D Procedures for Dungeon Stocking
Regardless of the details, I think I could've done better than 'random stocking' in many sections of dungeon, but relied heavily on it because I needed about 3000 rooms for the dungeon. Why did I need so many rooms? Why, to store the treasure required for XP of course...
The Trouble With Treasure
4- 160k
5-320k
6-640k
9-2.4m
The players asked for XP for kills to aid in their adventuring, and AD&D supports this, but I found it to be largely pointless and annoying, as I am sure no one reading will be much surprised by. It requires an abstracted, non-inventory based tracking, calls into question if 'defeat' is as good as 'kill,' and at the end of the day, is pretty pitiful It makes the players feel like they got some advancement when they fail to find treasure, but even in a game that was explicitly about fighting an enemy faction, I think it encouraged gameplay that just isn't great and if you want to have lots of in-depth combat encounters you should play Lancer or 4e or something.
Another thing I gave XP for in an attempt to speed things up was 'sabotage XP' where burning enemy boats would be worth XP. This was better than XP for kills, but suffered from a certain arbitrariness that made it feel very much like handing out XP for accomplishing goals via DM fiat. How much is a boat worth? Track those oak floorboards of the burned evil lair! Do the players get XP for an entire town wrecked if they release the Tarrasque? I think this could work with more thought, but as a little grafted on addition, it was not meaningful.
Back to thinking about treasure, then.
AD&D Random Treasure Table
01-25- 1000 copper pieces per dungeon level. To be clear, this is 100 pounds of copper for 10xp, per level, which is about the entirety of a character's free carrying capacity and. Do you want to run 200 sessions to reach level 2? No? Then please consider copper to not exist.
Anyway, please consider the following sloppy approximate calculations. Even with my increased treasure odds of 2-in-6, the chances of treasure actually being trash are pretty close to 4-in-6. So you need ~9(lets say 10) rooms to find a single good treasure result. And you need to do that twice to level up... but you have party members. Let's say 6 for a robust party that won't have to turn back after anything goes wrong, as parties of 3 are likely to do.
So. For a party of 6 to level up... they need to go through about... 120 rooms to get a level. I was tripling this for about 300 rooms in each subsection of dungeon to account for the hypothetical 20 players to reach level 9ish, and while the math was mathing and this seemed accurate... it was taking time. A LOT of time. Sure, my players were cutting their own XP gains by running multiple characters and multiclassing, but doing so also increased their power level and allowed them to pursue greater treasures and more profitable sessions, so that's honestly a bit of a wash.
An example of the loot generated randomly in the Flesh Pits- Reflavored from coinage, you can see the 'copper and silver' equivalents are absolutely not worth their weight, and even the gold equivalent at 66-80 was lightened by me to make it easier to carry. Remember each slot is about 10lbs of weight and most characters have about 10 slots for treasure free.
26-50 1500c 150 slots Onusian Scrap (10c per slot)
51-65 5500 55 slots- Empty Alchemical Glass Works (100c per slot)
66-80 4000 10 Bags of 400 hollow Yuan (Bai-Szue coins) (400c per slot)
81-90 15000c 15 Slots of Magical Reagents
91-94 15d4 Onyx gemstones used for necromancy, pre-sorted
95-97- 15 piece jewelry/level
98-00- Magic Item
Here's a quick copypaste of the 'standard items' the Autocrats of Night used against the players. No tier 4 items ever generated, though the campaign didn't reach the later-game stages. These are simplified, reflavored, and condensed from the AD&D tables, but I think they maintain the general mechanical purposes of those items.
Alternate Auto Generate- NPC Adventurer level is by dungeon level, or past dungeon level 5, 1d6+6, -1/+1 towards Dungeon Level.
I- 10% chance of Tier 1 Item
II-20% chance of 2x tier 1 Item
III-30% 2x Lvl1 10% tier 2
IV-40% 2x1, 20% 1x2
V-50% 2x1 20% 1x2
VI-60% 3x1 40% 2x2
VII-70% 3x1 50% 2x2 10% 1x 3
VIII-80% 3x1 60% 2x2 20% 1x3
IX-90% 3x1 70% 2x2 30% 1x3
X- 3x1, 80% 2x2, 40% 1x3
XI-3x1, 90% 2x2, 50% 1x3 10% 1x4
XII-3x1, 2x2, 60% 1x3, 30% 1x IV
XIII- 3x1, 2x2, 1x3, 60% 1x4
Tier 1 Magic Gear
Potions of Glue, Spring Nectar- Sleep, Vertigo, Confusion (Dragoon Rangers)
Potions of Healing, Elemental Resistance (by faction) (Clerics)
Potion of Ultraknight + Oil (Dragoon Melee) ( Ultraknight Serum is Human-Only Heroism + Haste + Enlarge + Rage)
Potion of Water Breathing + Feather Fall (MU)
Apprentice Spellbook, 2x 1d6 level spells, 6 indicates Curse, Protection, or Map (MU)
Gourd Helm/Pauldron/Breastplate/Greaves- +1 AC, spiked, not to exceed AC 17. (Any) Nerfed Ring of Protection
Wyvern Leather Armor +1 (Any)
Dragonbone Scrap Buckler +1 (Any)
1-handed Dragonbone Weapon +1 (Dragoon)
Revolver, KA-13 Clockwork Rifle, or Hunting Shotgun (Dragoon) (Guns use some combat rules from Esoteric Enterprises)
Tier 2 Magic Gear
Journeyman Spellbook, 3x spells of level 1d6 (MU)
Dragonhide Cloak, Resists 1x Element (Any). Combines with Armor into Dragonscale
Ring of Protection +3 (Any)
Baby Wyvern Companion- flies, incapacitating venom (Dragoon)
Arrkohn Bone Wand- Creates shadowy illusions, draining 1 charge per round. (Cleric)
CounterWand- Wand (when wielded) allows dispelling 1 wand/rod/staff/item activation effect with a 5-in-6 chance of success, 1/round. (Any)
Elven Brooch- Absorbs 1d100pts of Magic Missiles (Any)
Dragonbone Armor- As Plate +3 (Dragoon). Combines with Cloak into a single Dragonscale Armor with resistances if both are rolled
2-handed Dragonbone Weapon +3 (Dragoon)
Onusian Magnetic Pistol, Scoped DMR, massive HMG, or Double-Barrelled Shotgun (Dragoon)
Tier 3 Magic Gear
Memory Mites- 1d4+1 random extra spell slots of d6 level in the form of parasites. (MU or Cleric)
Faerie Dragon Pet- Attacks to drain items, no spells, very annoying. (Any)
Dragonhide Cloak of Darkness- Permanent darkness, but fuzzy around edges, allowing it to blend with shadows (Any)
Ogre Gauntlets- 18STR 3 Dex (Dragoon)
Murderer’s Mask- Allows charging enemies with base move of 40/80, allowing jumps (and jumpscares)
Bag of Beasts- 10 random animals per week, invert for Goblin King/Chimera
Mythril Chain +4 (Ac 19) AND Lionface Buckler +4 (AHZ dark research and Saresaren loot)
Golden Manacles/Adbuctor’s Rope/Dragon Sinews- Grappling binds hands/legs/gags on hit, then 1 per round (Cleric)
+3 Ego+Power Weapon (Dragoon)
Onusian Heavy Weapon (4d6 Laser Sniper, Guided Rocket, Minigun, or Mass-shotgun)
Tier 4 Magic Gear
Ifrit Lamp- Summons Ifrit for 3 tasks, final task must be ‘return to lamp’ and 1st is ‘do no harm to me or mine’ so really it’s 1 task
Ring of Reflection- Reflects 1-100% of targeted spells back at caster. (Mirrorside relics)
Resonance cascades- 70% spell drained, 10% both affected, 10% rings destroyed, 10% mirror realm banishment to both
Mokkhite Rod- +3 weapon, x2 vs undead/golems, x3 vs demons/etc, nat 20 destroys, uses charges
Dragonbone Wand (Fireball, Lightning, Cold, Acid, Poison Gas)
Geomantic Prism/Winter Mote- Casts Wall of Stone/Ice 1/week.
Caged Pixie- Can cast Forget and Charm, but pixie is irascible and only 1/encounter
Scroll of Shadows- Clerical scroll of Shadow Monsters II (HD monsters, 40% real if disbelieved at -2)
5-Dragon Robe- Provides resistance to the last damage take, otherwise allows camouflage with a 90% hide chance. (Any)
Iron Beast Bottle/Nightmare Anchor- Attempts to capture and enslave target. 1 Wrath of Hefon per use and day of not freeing prisoners. Alternately, nightmare banishment, 1use, no save.
Hellstar Power Armor- AC22, 26 with shield. Built in Onusian Weapons, jump-jets. Zaku
Based on my experience in this game, I think having randomly-generated rival parties have magic items or 'pseudo-magic items' with caveats, curses, limited uses, and social consequences is definitely the way to go to prevent them from being a source of magic items more concentrated than anything else in the game. So give them ranged weapons with exotic ammo, swords with annoying egos, unidentified rings, armor that will be recognizable to their allies and patrons if taken from them, and so on, and leave the 'real' magic item rolls for special hand-crafted parties and treasure troves. The above tables rained down some +3 and +4 weapons, shields, and armors onto my party that could've used some more drawbacks or flavor.
I also think the limited items gave a real flavor to the Autocrats as a faction, and I think making similar cultural treasure tables could be a good idea for monsters and humans alike in the future, rather than having everything be completely random.
Of course, these rival NPC parties are not just treasure pinatas, but were 1/10 of my random encounters, which leads me to
Roman numerals indicate the depth of dungeon (or from another perspective, the 'expected PC level') while the arabic numerals indicate the 'level' of monster. You roll a 1d20 and consult the dungeon level. When encountering low-level monsters on higher floors, their numbers multiply- You will find double the amount of goblins at level 2, triple at level 3, and so on. Similarly, numbers are reduced in the opposite direction- 1d6+1 Bugbears at level 3 will be reduced by half a level lower, or a third two levels lower. Rather than doing strict multiplication, I think it makes sense to give a range appearing- So 1 Troll 'doubles' into 1d3 trolls, then 1d6 trolls, rather than 1, 2, 3.
One thing I found interesting was that the 'lone big monster gets demolished by the action economy of the party' remains fairly true, making multiplied squads of mid-level enemies typically the worst thing to find. Another thing I found important was to give monsters roles to play as threats, rather than just being different flavors of 'killers.' This helped make a lengthy dungeon crawl less of a dice-throwing grind and helped the players problem solve their way past some enemies, and made combinations of different monsters more interesting.
I had a 'Bestiary' of about 100 Monsters I used. Some of them had a lot of overlap (Different varieties of Imps, goblins/hobgoblins, etc) and most drew from AD&D monsters with a bit of reflavoring. One way to fill a section of dungeon was to do room fills with every combination of the local random encounters- Goblins + Hydra could be them herding it, or keeping it at bay with the terrain, and so on. Then Goblins + Hobgoblins could be a training room with a clear divide of hierarchy. It was a pretty good way to generate brainstorming ideas, and the simple math of 'two level 4 monsters = 1 level 5 monster' made for fairly easy combo-encounter balancing.
My bestiary had 10 categories of monsters, each category having 10, one per 'monster level.'
- The Infestation
- Flora
- Undead
- Monstrum
- Cultists
- Rival Adventurers
- Fey
- Flesh
- Ningen
- Dragons
Goldbug (trap monster resembling 1GP akin to a rot grub, but more like the flesh eating scarabs from the Mummy)
A menace that only works once before the party starts testing coins. One player used them as material components for Corpse Explosion (a Fireball that targets only corpses, destroying them) by animating them as zombie servitors then sending them into stealthy position. Kudos to my player, bad as a random encounter roll, it should be part of trapped treasure (and have a collectable mini-game that values them as gems to bug-collectors).
Shrike Moth (Akin to a Gloommoth. Summons more of itself in extended combat)- Only one was ever fought, but the general idea of a summoning monster as threat is interesting.
Brain Wasp (Mind Flayer equivalent)- Two were encountered, one almost eating the brain and infesting a character, another being encountered wounded, wanting healing, getting it, and leaving. Their main psychic attack means 'players don't get to control their character' which is not great.
Jishen Musashi (Various AD&D beetle variants, with variants being sword styles)- great appeal to the anime enthusiasts, honorable but lethal bug samurai are more interesting than 'mindless' beetles. The Save or Die as sword technique was not foreshadowed enough when the players encountered the Deathwatch Beetle variant (having encountered Slicer Beetle and Earthquake Beetle variants previously) which is my main regret.
Worm of the Earth (Purple Worm)- I gave this some extra abilities and made the statblock a mess, but Big Worm is a classic and it both was a threat and an ally based on interaction with the Worm God, so I think that religious angle makes them even better.
KRX- A Brain Wasp-descendent from a Type 4 Kardashev civ, sent back in time to conquer the past as a new frontier. Stats as Demon Lord (baalzebub) + Mind Flayer. A reference to a different sci-fi campaign and something to fill the level 10 slot, and not a serious inclusion. Never encountered.
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| Basically a vegemite, tho alas no cauliflower variant exists for true accuracy of the forces of Brassican the Cauliflowomancer |
Puff Balloon- A Gas Spore, but without the Beholder-mimicry. Essentially land mines that would float ominously forward before being shot. The explosion would cause a wandering encounter check, and the spores would infest wood and corpses to create more. Similar to the throat-leeches above, I had an idea that the players might need to manage the dungeon so this mold didn't get out of control, but without intentional design, my random fills didn't have the dungeon design to make that a reality. Plus, once their mechanics were known, they weren't much of a threat unless as part of another encounter/combo encounter. All this means I think they should've been a Trap.
I tried to give them special combat roles based on size but due to not having an easy procedure, often forgot this.
I think having pre-calculating a few squad sizes, rather than rolling and doing maths, would have helped me here.
Spring Growth- alien moon plant-life that is a combo of Yellow Musk Creepers, Tri-Flower Fronds, and Twilight Blooms, born from the desire to give players access to food, oil, grease, alcohol, potion reagents, minor poisons and various spiked gourds usable as caltrops, sling bullets, armor, shelter, and so on, without access to shops! They had a cycle of growth that never really came up because the players mostly ignored/harvested an area without ever returning. Again, this loss of potential was probably due to my dungeons not being built intentionally, and I just so happened to almost never roll this on encounter tables (simulating creeping growth, not ambulatory triffidism). One of my many random encounters that should have been a trap/trick room fill.
Berry Traps- aka Snappersaws or forester's banes. They suffer from the common plant monster problem of being immobile and not too hard to identify after the first time, and their bait of some berries was not sufficiently tempting in a dungeon with plenty of other monsters to eat. Perhaps this would be solved by giving them a 'Goodberry' effect, and/or placing them in even more food-motivated campaigns, but again, another 'better as a trap' monster. I had them appear in large pots to be carted around by the autocrats for some mobility, and they had some good potential random encounters when combo'd with other monsters of various levels.
Root of Agayba- I forget which horrible AD&D monster this was based on, but it's basically a plant-hydra that deals 25% of your max HP as damage by sucking the moisture outta you instead of dealing regular damage.
This monster was only encountered once and left an impression, but apart from the theoretical 'we can use this to turn the Tarrasque into a raisin' use case and the built in ability to escape from it if you lead it to water, it was not too interesting I think- despite having some unique features it was still, at the end of the day, a mindless 'kill you' style threat.
Skullbriar- an unassuming entry in the Monster Manual II is the Choke Creeper or Strangler vine, a simple 'vine that is animate and trying to strangle you' monster that is inexplicably a level 9 monster with 25HD, instakill effects that bypass saves in favor of pure chance, and broad elemental resistance (including fire). I added some needle-throwing, caltrop-spawning abilities from Needlemen from the Fiend Folio to make it a creeping dungeon threat that affected the terrain and slowly cut off retreat, but alas, like most level 9 monsters the campaign did not make it that far. The 'growing spike hazard and merciless grappling melee' supported with thorn-throwing to counter the problem of 'we throw oil at it' seemed a very promising monster, so smaller variants will surely appear in this form, and in their dead, tumbleweed form that often contains an undead using it as a hamsterball.
Skeletons are also mostly unkillable by piercing damage, burning, poison, drowning, pressure-plate triggered traps, and so on. Weak, mass-animated skeletons used by necromancers are thus best used in hostile conditions like caltrop-minefields, underwater, in poison gas and of course, as archers- or worse, Gunners, both of which are mostly immune to ranged counterattacks.
Skeletons thus became a fairly interesting tactical problem for the players to solve now and then- admittedly, mostly when they forgot the clerics at home. Having skeletons instantly fold to a Cleric is a little disappointing.
The delayed level drain turned out to be a considerable nerf- I don't think any players fell victim to these lesser foes, as they were always slain or kicked out of their grapples.
I also used Draugr, a more norse variant, and gave them a freezing hypothermic touch that worked on a 'three strikes and you are probably dead' progress from Veins of the Earth, and required resting at a fire to recover.
These were a little more menacing due to how they disabled climbing, and maneuverabilityand enforced rest-time even if they caused no lasting damage, and had a bit of counterplay thanks to Resist Cold being low level.
Again, a nerf compared to a RAW Wight, but I think they were the better variant.
A final variant was the 'accursed undead' that applied curses to items and players, but these never showed up. They might be a good choice for 'long term consequences for tactical failures' as wights are meant to be tho.
In anycase, flesh golems serve as advanced zombies, pretty much- only as interesting as the necromancers make them.
I'm not a huge fan of magic resistance as it has a lot of weird implications, unclear lore, and unsatisfying gameplay, but a badass skeleton with a sword is cool. I think I need to make these closer to what high-level fighters look like in the rest of my campaign to distinguish them from flesh golems (who also enjoy a lot of magic immunity as gimmick).
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| A lot of the ones in this campaign actually had guns too, which while off brand for most campaigns, gave me an excuse to use this sort of image. |
Again, I'm just not sure if mid-combat level drain is really the way to go... anyway. People know the weaknesses of a Dracula so they can sometimes feel rote to fight, which is why I had great fun reskinning them into Jiang Shi, who are often blind, but can sense breathing, and have an entirely different set of weaknesses.
Most of these will delay a jiang-shi attack for 1-4 rounds.
They retreat to darkness by the crow of a rooster due to the belief daylight is coming.
Holy symbols presented directly at them will prevent their advance, lest the gods smite them. This includes Mirrors, and mirrors show their live reflections,
which distresses them.
Nailing tree seeds to the seven acupuncture points on their back is equivalent to staking a Dracula.
Scattering rice, a bag of coins, etc may cause them to hesitate for 1-4 rounds before hopping over, as they don't want to hop onto marbles/caltrops
and fall/have their feet constantly stabbing them on hops.
Handbells may give them pause, for their fear of Bell Exorcists.
A Fulu of Protection From Evil (a scroll) applied to the forehead may bring them under control/render them inert.
Fire, of course
Blood of a bad dog, hooves of a mutant goat, wooden sword from an peach tree, sword made of Bai-Szue coins, serves as a Sword of Jiang Shi Slaying (+4, Triple Damage)
(probably triple damage alone with no to hit would be better)
Giving the players this list (modified in flavor slightly for the sunset realms) led to some fun problem solving as they pondered how to get these items.Lich/Vampire with Cleric 10 Powers
A staple entry in the high level random dungeon encounters of AD&D, these results were not remotely equal, I would say. Given the problem of only getting one action per round, Jiang Shi/Vampires with Cleric 10 powers were not as impressive as I hoped, as every round they cast spells they weren't getting in their vampiric melee, and every round they melee'd, they weren't getting in their spells, and they were susceptible to grapples, silence fields, and generally being dogpiled by the entire party.
Liches were just a hair out of range of being encountered by the party before the campaign ended alas. I did go to the trouble of generating one ahead of time and determining best use of spells and such, which is necessary homework to avoid lackluster Lich encounters.
The Level 10 encounter was Bak-Mei, the original thief of the 5 Dragon Orbs, and chief among necromancers and Jiang-Shi, but as you might expect by the level 9 encounter going unseen, so too was the level 10 encounter.
Cultists-
Low level cultist packs were not too different from 'Goblins' or 'Bandits' but they had a built in factional and roleplay opportunity that usually made them a decent encounter. Darkness was the spell of choice for the Autocrats of Night, and it gave them a tool that was useful but not TPK inducing, usually being enough to cover an escape and dissuade the players from charging into darkness.
Mid level cultist packs, with Level 4 leaders, typically had more of a 'mass combat with high priority targets' vibe- there'd usually be a cultist doing Bless or Chant to give them all +1 to hit, and a 'main fighter' type who would be supported with Cure Light Wounds so they could use their magic weapon/armor more effectively. Cultists, unlike Bandits, are melee encounters rather than ranged, so they are easily foiled by dungeon terrain even in overwhelming numbers.
Roleplay wise, these High Level Clerics could serve as NPC cleric services with factional and roleplay opportunities, but if they're all just 'evil cultists' this opportunity is lost.
I made these based on the Pilgrim encounter in the AD&D book and was largely satisfied with it, though in the future I think removing the random rolling and just giving 3 different standard units of cultist hordes might be better. They overlap significantly with 'NPC Adventuring Party,' so I would certainly recommend not having both on your encounter table unless they are ideologically not allied with each other.
Manticores- Survivors from the Monstrum purge, I used the 'spite based nightmare monster' idea and while a solid reimagining of the Manticore, the players only ever encountered one and had a good time cursing the idea of intelligent flying ranged monsters before they killed it. So I've not much to say, other than the manticore as 'flying hit and run ranged combatant' is an interesting tactical problem.
I have wrote previously that making wishes is to some degree 'idiot bait' to which the win condition is to resist temptation, but in this campaign, the Autocrats had a bound ifrit. Due to the assumption of a shared hatred for the Autocrats of Night, the players were emboldened to make wishes that would please the Ifrit as well as themselves, in hopes the Ifrit would not twist their wishes, and were successful in this (mostly). So like most things, reintroducing old concepts in new context can lead to novel outcomes, and making sure you run the Ifrit as a character, not "GM vs Player" can help make wishing games more diegetically pleasing for everyone.
While high level monsters, they are curiously defensively oriented- 24 AC and immunity to spells below 8th level, as well as typical immunity to nonmagic weapons (and half damage if under +3!) makes a Rakshasa invincible to low level parties... but kinda just a slog to high level parties, since they do a woeful 1d3+1/1d3+1/1d4+1 damage. I even buffed them a little for 1d6/1d6/1d6 for easier rolling, and our level 6 Fighter/Cleric rightfully scoffed and stopped worrying after taking like 3 damage per round.
I give Rakshasa some actual tigers as minions, which solves the damage issue, but I feel like they would be a more compelling high level threat if they were more explicitly powerful sorcerers who could use their spells to dispel hostile magics in mage duels and pull out some curses and such instead of their housecat-like damage.
I don't know what 5th edition did for Rakshasa, and I don't remember what 3rd edition did, but this is a case of unsatisfying monster design in AD&D I would say.
Greater Demons- Averaged from Balors, Mariliths, Pit Fiends, and Ice Devils, these come out to being around 13HD, 23AC, +2 or better weapons to hit in my campaigns, with access to mass crowd control in the forms of Symbols of Insanity/Pain/Etc, incredible mobility, and good murderyness. These things are Bad News, and the one the players encountered was at the end of a session where everyone was tired, so I gave them an offscreen loss, deciding they got Geas'd to seek an artifact in Nightmare (the setting's Hell equivalent) which the players made a token attempt at before sneaking out of it by virtue of ending the campaign + divine intervention. This made me rethink the function of the Geas spell and streamline it a bit, so this encounter had it's uses, but I can't speak deeply on these critters .
These monsters certainly live up to the high level monster hype as level 9 monsters compared to some other flops, but do require a lot of personal tweaking to campaigns, so I have some work cut out for me if I want a complete demon bestiary with a Imp/Demon/Fiend for each god.
Goblins- Goblins die in one hit, and don't even have their numbers fixed. Rarely did the players fight 12 goblins, they fought 3d6 goblins. A quantumly uncertain shadow-horde, borne from cauldrons and liminal gaps in the lore.
They are mostly for comic relief and being adopted as hirelings if Named.
I like my take on goblins very much, but I'll be here all night if I get into it. You basically get goblins, how they play in campaigns, and I'm sure mine are different metaphysically, but not as much gameplay-wise.
Hobgoblins- Goblins who ARE individuated (and housetrained), and have real HP and numbers and names and table manners (sometimes). They fight under a banner of their commanding liege-lord for a bonus, giving little minigames to fights with them (take out the banner), and have proper tactics and armaments compared to goblins. They are a little less funny now that they are proper minions, but they still have the sense of being parodies of the humans and their marching armies and societies.
In terms of 'sub-chiefs' and whatever organization and level caps Gygax gave them, that's gone now. I use the same character levels as the Elves entry in the monster manual, when there are enough of them to become a big faction with a Lair Treasure.
These killed a player once- focus-firing upon the only target they had with ranged weaponry. +3 to hit is pretty good, turns out.
One player mentioned that they felt less 'fey' than some of the other entries, so I have vowed to spice them up a bit with some codes of conduct that are exploitable in gameplay- needing to keep their hats fresh with red blood, for instance, or getting a Bless effect from it like how Hobgoblins have their banner.
Ogres are similar to Bugbears, but a bit lower in numbers and a bit higher in HD. They're stupider (I say they have shadows, but not names or deeds- the opposite development of a Redcap) but serve as 'muscle' in the dungeon- they can break down doors, they can carry most things, they can pick up a fighter and toss them away, etc etc. They also serve as beasts of burden and dungeon construction equipment when bound to serve more Lawful fey. They can be Named, but the effort is much more perilous.
These are both level 3 monsters. Ogres need to be outwitted early on or they might just pound one person to jelly before they are slain. Redcaps need to be outmatched in multiple ways, because they're very close to being a rival adventuring party, just without any fancy spells or armor or thief skills. And even later on, they're just tough enough that you gotta respect them, because they show up in numbers and can hit high AC targets now and then.
Fairies- Fairies are just anthropomorphized spellbooks for the elves. You can talk to them in plain speech instead of wizardly spell-research.
https://wizzzargh.blogspot.com/2019/02/fairies-are-elf-spell-list.html
These are a weird intersection of encounter, treasure, trick, and trap. I think no matter where I put them, I'll want them somewhere else too, but random encounters are always in my mind, so it was good enough to have them here.
Small, flying, magic resistant dragon with a bunch of powerful magics held back only by whimsy and a 'good' alignment probably isn't something I recommend for most campaigns either, to be fair. They are also very 'druidic' in their spell selection, which made less sense in a dungeon compared to an enchanted forest.
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I'm still coming for yo magic items, players, don't think I won't |
Trolls
If Goblin->Hobgoblin->Redcap is the Lawful advancement track for goblinoids, Goblin->Ogre->Troll is the Chaotic advancement track. Ogres, being terrible monsters, eventually acquire names unofficially. Names like 'The Beast of Boggerty Hill What No One Has Seen and Lived to Tell The Tale.' or "Mr. Please Don't Eat Me.' But they are names, and names are powerful among the fey. Enough names becomes a Troll, similar in size and strength to an ogre, but beginning to be more deathless like an immortal fey, and skilled in combat too, getting multiattacks.
An Ogre Mage is also a Troll, but one that knows the flashy magic, flying on clouds and calling storms and exploding runes and making magical contracts. Depending on where you are in the world, they're called Trollkarl, or Oni.
We didn't get to Troll-Tier soon enough to really think about these, but I think they suffer a little from the 'not feeling fey enough if you use D&D stats,' as all the deep lore will not be relevant to them eating your face.
Bean Sidhe- AKA a Banshee. I combined Banshee, and Ghost, and honestly I think it wasn't the best, it was just a weird nasty ghost that aged you. And the lore wasn't quite right. But I think undead elves being the type that Ages you makes sense and provides an interesting variant for wights and wraiths and everything.
Sidhe- A Goblin King... like Jareth from Labyrinth. Or a hooved and horned figure- a Satyr, or Pan. No, the hooves and horns are of an elk mount, ridden by a knight rimed in Winter. Or a beast-headed, deformed giant, born old and sick, kept alive by sucking life- a Fomorian. You may note the lines distinguishing fey from each other get blurrier.
The details don't really matter (I use stats from Ynn), but my favorite thing about these high-level spellcaster/fighters is this 1d12 encounter table, variant from normal 2d6 reaction. The unpredictability and rapid shifts in tone make the fey fun to run, even if they, imo, need a bit more weirdness than standard spell lists.
Fey Whimsy
1-Want to do worse than kill you- polymorph you into a dog and keep you forever, turn you into a living statue, etc etc.
2-Want to kill you in the same way you might want to kill a fly buzzing near your face- abruptly, casually.
3-Offended by your presence, will demand you begone from their sight, will kill you if they see you again or if you don’t leave.
4-Wants your stuff- magic items, years of your lives, experience levels, firstborn child.
5-Asshole noble behavior, dominance displays, expects display of submission, flattery, bribery in return.
6-Lazily disinterested in you. Might reroll if you do something neat in their presence if they're not affected. If they are, probably unhappy about it.
7-Decide to test your character via contrived situations. If you fail their arbitrary moral standards they'll probably curse or kill you.
8-Unnervingly interested in you. Stalks you until you do something neat and they reroll, or they get bored.
9-Vaguely friendly if condescending and patronizing. Might feed you mixed nuts from their hand or throw bread at you.
10-Thinks you're neat, gives you 3 impossible tasks to do to be their apprentice/lover/spouse/business partner/comrade.
11- offer you a boon to demonstrate their own munifence. Failure to be appreciative may reroll reaction.
12- Decide to be your fairy godmother for a bit, steamrolling opposition to your stated goal until achieved or they get bored.
Alf- An incomplete high-level entry, a lone level 20 NPC character instead of a pack of 2-5 typical rival adventurers, intended to be in possession less of +5 swords and Meteor Swarms and more 'using feats from other editions' in terms of their flavor of being so much better than mortals that they have class abilities that don't exist for you.
One player WAS one such elf, using the Secret Badass meta-class of being secretly level 20 but forced to leave the party upon revealing her full power, which turned out better than expected in terms of satisfying character roleplay and such, reminding me of Tenra Bansho Zero. But apart from that, none were encountered in gameplay, including Nasariel the Reasonable, one of the 5 Dragon-Orb wielding autocrats, who indeed WAS in possession of Meteor Swarm.
The Flesh- fragments of amorphous, shapechanging flesh monsters from Red Ynn (if Ynn was a meat-world). I drew from some pretty esoteric AD&D sources for some of these, but lore-wise it was all the same stuff.
Pelesits grow into Facelifters which grow into Envelopers. With exposure to sapient minds early on, Envelopers become Doppelgangers, but without it, they become Gibberers, then mimics, then Trappers/Lurkers Above/Flesh Walls.
These were some of my favorite encounters because despite being horrible body horror flesh beasts, they could mostly all have neutral/positive interactions with the party, mostly via symbiosis, becoming hirelings, and interactions with treasure and inventory, rather than being strictly HP depletion machines.
Peltasts/Pelesit- Small leathery mimics from a Dragon Magazine that mimic pouches, belts, gloves, etc, these drink blood at a slow rate, preventing natural healing but dealing no extra damage, filter poison from bloodstreams, and inject adrenaline in times of peril. These subtle little creatures probably should have been a kind of 'cursed item' rather than an encounter, but the players did find them an interesting inclusion to the campaign
Facelifters- Executioner's Hoods, with a bit of the 3.5 darkmantle. The players didn't find many of these, but I think I made their monster entry far too complicated when I could have just kept 'grapples the head, mimics the face, puppets the body after eating the head'
Envelopers- A weird creature that sort of functions as a low-tier doppelganger that has to kill and eat someone first. I gave them the ability to change into someone immediately after 'enveloping' them instead, even if they failed to kill. They take on the characteristics of those they copy, and those they copy in the future as well, discarding incompatible traits. Interestingly, this means that if they eat a party member and/or ally, they will be allied after the change, but if they eat enemies, they will end up hostile again.
A combat encounter that turns into a social/hireling encounter is weird but interesting, and I liked this critter. I had them create keratin item duplicates of the inventory of those engulfed, stealing some real items to help make it unclear which double was which.
Gibbering Mouthers- While visually these swarms of mouths and eyes was peak, I wasn't as big of a fan of their various weird abilities and mechanics. I tried to make them more physical and less magical (no confusion gibberings, but they could debilitate via slippery grappling, false flesh doubles, and spitting) but I think the statblock needs work, the abilities need simplifying, and there needs to be something positive, like many of the other entries have, as the 'only here to eat you' monster is the weakest, usually.
Doppelgangers (and Protein Polymorphs)- In AD&D, these creatures are very reliant on telepathy/ESP to deceive and infiltrate. I think I prefer the explanation that the mimicry might be able to copy the brain of whoever was copied instead, and require a bloodsample/nerve-link to accomplish this, and to make it so they can become inanimate objects as well. Protein Polymorphs are weird AD&D inclusions, somewhere between a Doppelganger and a Mimic, (with a hefty 6d6 melee attack)
Ultimately I haven't quite finished remaking the 'fleshy doppelganger' variant, and I think part of it is 'how do I want this to be used, ' rather than the nitty gritty of the statblock. A doppelganger successfully TPKing the party in their sleep after replacing a player and being alone on watch seems to be the major threat implied, but that's not favored gameplay- they have the most potential in social scenes and as minions of villains, rather than as dungeon monsters.
Mimics- Mimics are great! It's important to remember that they are sticky, so weapons (and people) will be held fast after touching them, which makes outright melee with them difficult. AD&D notes that they are intelligent and can be bargained with, which is fun, but the mindless 'Killer Mimic' is less interesting to me.
I think in addition to 'the treasure chest eats you' mimics should be primarily hostage-takers, both of unwary people, and of treasure they keep as bait and bargaining chips. This also helps avoid the 'ok we pelt it with arrows from a safe distance' mode of solving mimics, and can turn it into a hostile merchant encounter, sorta.
Endocutii- I needed a flesh monster for the level 7 monster slot- these are the chess-men from Ynn, reimagined as skeletal symbiote-suits people could wear. My players briefly used these symbiote suits, and I enjoyed drawing them, but ultimately I feel like my love of the chess-pieces of Ynn comes from imagined stories with them, not so much their mechanical powers (not to mention the difficulty of tracking multiple pieces).
Trapper- depending on positioning, this could also be a Lurker Above, a flesh wall, or a roving, huge meat mass I internally thought of as a Nupeppo. These big monsters are intelligent, but mostly just deadly, wrapping around people and crushing/suffocating them in a few rounds in AD&D. I decided absorbing them into a tapestry of previously fused victims would be a horrifying alternate visual and my players were satisfyingly grossed out, but surprisingly this monster was not as menacing as I thought. As a child I always thought it looked like a cruelly delayed instadeath if one got you, but turns out if it only gets one person, the rest of the party can hack through a Trapper to save them pretty quick.
I think combining these with mimics is probably best as they are both 'sticky ambush predator' at the end of the day, and some unified ways to rule the details of being stuck and eaten.
Gate to Red Ynn- An unused monster, this was a shambling flesh-portal with the stats of a Thessalhydra. Even with having death meaning 'sucked to Red Ynn' I don't mind the players never really fighting one of these, but the mighty stats of a thessalhydra remain untested as to if they are worthy level 9 monsters.
Ningen- I took the term from the japanese cryptid to describe my take on merfolk, who grow huge and hungry and aren't quite as strictly-aquatic as you'd hope. In general, these monsters did not get used as much, because they were found in freezing and underwater locales that gave them a much higher level of danger. This included various watery beasts and phenomena such as:
Swim Orbs- a 10x10 orb of water that magically float based on weight distribution and spell-commands. I had hoped these would function as softball gelatinous cubes, blocking hallways, extinguishing torches, etc etc, as well as serving as 'host' to sea creatures even if I rolled them on land. But once again, it was not enough to roll up a random pit with a bridge and hope one day a fun encounter appears there- an intentionally designed dungeon would have let me place these more as features than wandering encounters, thus saving me the awkwardness of giving HP and AC to what barely counted as a combat encounter. I also think having them fly made them a little too dangerous if fast, and too useful to players when slow- having them be fast 'waves' rushing around, unable to climb, might have been better.
Ningenspawn- 2HD enemies that are aquatic and slow on land, but a menace in water. I think that plus alternate weapon loadouts (spears and nets) distinguishes them enough from hobgoblins, Gnolls, Orcs, etc. Ningenspawn are young, hungry, and cannibalistic, but if spoken to in the language of Fish they might prove reasonable.
Drowner Orbs- As Swim Orbs, but with the stats and drowning abilities of a Water Weird. I think they're interesting due to reforming after destruction, but that could be frustrating to players, especially since Swim Orbs could be disrupted by weapons. While I think 'floating drowner sphere of water' isn't bad, it's another entry that might be better as a non-flying wave, or as a trick/trap or even a spell cast by Ningen.
Iceberg Guard- Sort of like an Ogre, but with Ice Toad stats. Radiating 3d6 cold every other round was dangerous but kinda boring, and might be too good an ability to give to an intelligent creature at this monster level.
I came to that conclusion throughout the campaign and instead often used Drowners, which were more of a 'assassin' variant in that they were to spit water at torches and silently drag people underwater to drown them.
Either way these guys are like the size of walruses.
Eel Hydra- Rather than a true hydra, these were mad-science-experiments, the equivalent of a human having a rat-king for a pet.
This was actually another monster that became extra dangerous with water, as it could submerge itself to allow for head regeneration and prevent fire from cauterizing the stumps- thankfully the players never had to bother and slew them all by destroying the body direct with fireballs and guns.
I'm not sure how I feel about Hydra as monsters- they're kinda similar to 'just a bunch of guys stapled together' with their multiattack, mechanically speaking, and everyone knows the myth of how to stop regrowth. A damp oceanic twist didn't save them from basically just being 'look out, lots of damage.' Maybe if each head were to latch on and prevent limb use, there would be more focus on fighting heads and engaging more with the gimmick.
The fire and ice breathing variants (and the electric eel variant I included) of Hydra feel a bit strange as well- it's very similar to a dragon, just with lots of mini-breaths, and fighting such hydra felt even more like a 'HP/Resistance check' than dragons do. I think I'd like to revisit the Hydra somehow- maybe giving it heads that are dozens or hundreds of feet long, snaking through a dungeon, would work better.
Ningen Siren- A luring song and anglerfish lure, and a touch that permanently destroyed wisdom, these were a mixture of the Harpy and the Lamia of the monster manual, slapped atop a Hill Giant-tier body of a giant fish-person. I don't much like Charming my player's characters, so I played the song as a more subtle effect where I'd gaslight the players by saying 'you think your goal is through the left door here' when in fact I was directing them through the dungeon to the Siren. If they were paying attention and had maps, they could realize something was wrong and deny me- I hope this felt more like testing player skill than removing player agency due to a failed save.
In combat, I would have the luring song allow moving towards the Siren, but not away- again, something that I hope felt more like tactical crowd control abilities, rather than forcing the players to watch solo-play.
Though I was mostly satisfied, I think these encounters would have been much better in a more carefully crafted dungeon that would have threats and rooms that were ALL interesting and foreshadowing Siren lairs, rather than just trying to make a singular room without relation to the rest of the dungeon an interesting setpiece.
Water/Ice Elementals- Kinda boring, but versatile! I can't complain too much, especially if I use those 'What does the Elemental Want' tables from Coins & Scrolls or possibly Goblinpunch. I had some giant ice-golem statues tramping about as part of a puzzle, a water elemental as pool with captives to rescue on an island in the middle, and one serving as a moat/wall of water engulfing a tower. Rather than strict combat, all of these came down to puzzle and problemsolving, either of how to bribe the elemental with what it wanted, rescue the POWs without violating the technicality of the water elemental's instructions, and kiting the ice-golems to giant pressure pads.
Winter Warden- a Ningen the size of an orca whale, with the powers and combat capacity of an Ice Devil. I was looking forward to the players battling these, but the campaign ended too soon.
Chosen of the Pit- A storm-giant equivalent, plus some blessings the players gave the Ningen in the previous Godbound campaign. The Nameless Siren, Autocrat of Night and holder of the Dragon orb of Ivory and Silver, was the least-engaged with thanks to being underwater, but this was mostly fanservice for prior campaigns.
Dragons-Saving the best for last! Dragons! The focus of the campaign!
I standardized dragons so that they all range in HD(size) from 5-11, age category of 3-8 (hatchlings represented by pseudodragon statblocks), AC from 17-21, and Claw/Claw/Bite of 1dX/1dX/3dX, with additional wing bashes and tail-whips for those flanking them made blindly but with the same power as a claw. X ranged from 4-12, increasing with age category, which could occasionally lead to a small but lethal old lizard, or a big but kinda flimsy youth.
I used breath weapons that did flat damage (save for half) = to current HP, which encouraged early strikes via dragons and was considered more terrifying than rolled damage, but 'less D&D feeling' to some players. While it's good for dragons to be scary, there were some unforeseen consequences-
-as the dragons were mind-controlled by orbs owned by evil villains, most dragons were immediately hostile. In more natural settings, I have dragons on neutral results eat horses and/or extort treasure, rather than immediately going to strafe & bake, and that helps them be present without killing the party with limited counterplay every dozen sessions or so.
-As their breath weapon was ranged, they got to use it in the Ranged phase, (before melee and later magic) which meant there was no counterplay. I think allowing for prepared actions to run and possibly escape dragonbreath might simulate skirmish combat more satisfyingly than 'I guess you lost the random targeting roll Kent, take 80 acid damage and save for half!' Of course such dodging will fail if you misjudge the shape, direction, etc of a breath weapon, or are simply too armored to move enough distance.
Color-Coded dragons is something I'm not 100% convinced by, but I stuck to the breath weapon shaping and colors in AD&D, as well as various weird little rules like their saves being better than their HD indicates, chances of talking and spellcasting, etc. Honestly, I think I could streamline Ye Dragon Generation a bit more still.
Dragons frequently had riders in this campaign, who became compoundingly more deadly if the rider was a spellcaster, or had an assault rifle to lay down suppressive fire, or the dragon carried a 'pillbox' of thorned gourd with gunners inside, or an ice sphere with a Ningen Siren inside, etc etc. And of course, multiple dragons could appear simultanesouly in deeper dungeon levels, which did much to solve the 'action economy' problem and strike fear into the hearts of my players.
I'd say including more dragonlairs and type H treasure would have been good- there was an area of dungeon that had 20 such lairs, but I think having pre-made dragon encounters with set lairs in a more carefully constructed dungeon would have been better.
Dungeon Fatigue And the Level 5 Wall
The Dungeon
Level 1 & 2- Ghost Town
The surface of the dungeon was a ghost town that the Autocrats laired beneath, with the surface being mostly a bombed-out ruin inhabited by lesser minions.
Each 'room' of this dungeon was a building, handled in abstract ways. There were sections of higher-level content such as the Moon Observatories, an organized military band of archers that overwatched from the militarized district, and some mansions that were cultist and/or Dragoon bases (Dragoons being the term for the semi-modernized dragon-riders, who wielded assault rifles and wielded dragon
bone and hide armaments), and most centrally, a skyscraper that was a goblin lair that was raided once to depose their current goblin king, then again in the final confrontation of the campaign.
This kind of environment allowed for fairly open ended problem solving, as it was not as constricted as a dungeon, but had plenty of places to hide, fortify, or run to, unlike the open countryside. The players went through two bases here- one in a bar with sewer access in the entry district, and one more long-term one in a manor surrounded by a Wall of Thorns, only accessible via the sewer/basement or flight. Were I to make such a 'ruined city-crawl' again I think I would add the names/styles of buildings to the map itself for easy reference, and have some generic maps available for house layouts to reuse.
Monster-wise, Lesser undead, cultists on Darkness-casting duty to shroud the city,
goblins, various insect vermin (who were more hazard than combat),
plant-monster hazards, and vegepygmies (renamed and reflavored to living
cauliflower-folk called vegemites seeking to spread cauliflower
culinary culture by any means necessary, thanks to the
Cauliflowomancer), as well as some exploding Gas Spores and
Pseudodragons were what Monster Levels I-III contained (as well as some floating water orbs that were more scenery than monster, though they could be disrupted).
One thing I liked most about this dungeon level is that, as the players were low level, was the collection of loot and tools like wrenches, ruined toolboxes, and other questionably useful scrap. This 'scrap' derived from breaking down the ruins of old houses was not worth very much XP, but I think having that sort of thing in dungeons goes a long way to give the players problem solving opportunities, compared to nothing but blank stone.
Level 3- Sewers
You may note this looks suspiciously similar to the map above, and you'd be right to do so. The sewers here were unused and dry, now just a system of dark tunnels and basement access to the houses above.
The sewers were a bit more 'classic dungeon ' due to the constricted spaces and more common locked portculli (sewer grates) and locked basement doors. There were 'bottomless pit' hazard areas that made traversal spicy now and then (this entire dungeon takes place on a megastructure which you can think of as a cap over a gigantic open pit) and there were only ever 3 or so encounters of monster levels 4 and 5- a swarm of goldbugs (akin to a swarm of flying rotgrubs) a doppelganger (easily sniffed out due to failing to kill a goblin retainer) and a 5 headed hydra, which was an exciting encounter that kept the party walled up in their thorn-manor base for a few days before they schemed a way to drop it into a pit/trap it behind a sewer grate.
Probably the most exciting area was the Goblin Market, below the skyscraper, which provided some opportunity for the players to restock and have roleplay interactions- I've gone into detail about how an endless hostile dungeon crawl is unsustainable already though.
The sewers were more dangerous, but not, alas, more interesting, and though they were explored perhaps 80% of the way, they were rightfully treated as more of a transition zone.
Levels 4 & 5- The Chasm Vaults
The Chasm Vaults were vertical dungeons that faced each other across a ravine, open via cracks and gaps, bridged 3 times. To get around their huge size, I did some roll20 map shenanigans that made them even more gimmicky to explore and understand than the verticality was also doing, and though the players explored the left side decently, the right side they limited themselves to destroying another Kel'A'Vak cultists base and finding the path to the Giant's House, then gave up on the area due to the annoyance of the map.
I never quite managed to have a 'keep an eye on the other side' as you explore tension as I had originally hoped, in part due to the mapping issues adding cognitive load, and the randomly generated nature of this dungeon and poor grid-based keying on my part made this section of the campaign feel most like random dungeon slop. While there were interesting traps and riddles and mechanical puzzles here and there, there wasn't much intent in placing them which led to an issue of 'pacing' I think. One
room could be the fortress-base of a pack of 20-200 cultists led by high level characters, and an adjacent room was some unrelated puzzle with no foreshadowing of said cultists.
The players also set up two bases here- one in a castle that guarded the bridge, taken from a necromancer, until they became worried about being too obvious and retreated to a slimy shrine of Houthrel, which was more secret and secure, but also smaller and less livable as they rescued more prisoners of war.
The constant ladders and climbs made looting large pieces of treasure a real pain, as was body recovery- the gimmick of the vertical dungeon had worn very thin by the time the players abandoned this section, but they had to traverse it frequently to return to the surface, and so suffered many a random encounter here.
I'd say the main combats here were with rival adventuring parties (hostile Dragoons and their support wizards and clerics) cultists (going to a murder-party hosted by one such cultist group made for another break in the dungeon-crawl) and flesh-beasts (Envelopers, a sort of lesser doppelganger that appears as a tube of adventurer-gobbling flesh that then turns into a keratin copy of whatever it eats, being a common foe). Occasional demons and brain-wasps (mindflayer reskins) were the high-level threats that appeared, and the most lethal encounters were with Hobgoblins and Bugbears (Aka Redcaps in my game), as they were more hostile than disorganized goblins and focus-fired down characters with ranged attacks twice, once killing a human fighter who was holding the backline in a fighting retreat, and once killing a Beetle-Warrior who barged through a door and was so large they had no choice but to aim their thrown maces and axes at them.
Room-to-Room the content was okay I think, it was simply the lack of conscious thought in placement, the random dungeon likewise lacking intent, and the interface issues that made this a lackluster section of dungeon. It also was only very gradually breaking away from the earlier encounter table probabilities- I found the later areas had more varied and exciting encounters, though this was still better than areas 1-3.
Levels 6- The Thrice Sundered Mont & The Hanged Gardens
The undead here lacked level-draining capabilities, but did apply hypothermia in a '3 stages and you're done for' method, that then required making and warming up at a fire. These alternate wights were sufficiently menacing enough for my tastes, and ghouls, the result of donner-party cannibalism on the frozen peaks, are always nasty.
The penalty of needing cold-weather gear kept the players away from the place for some time (as did the random-encounter-laden trek back up through the chasm vaults), and the deeper depths were never explored in too much depth thanks to the terrible threat of cold, dark waters, and enemies that could handle the environment better than they could. With regards to the 'pacing' issue, I think an intentional crafting of this dungeon to have a section of humans who also had trouble with the cold and the water would have been a better introduction, with the major threat of undead and Ningen in the water being left for a deeper level of dungeon, to be introduced after the players had time to consider, master, and account for the new environment.
They did delve in the dry areas and fight the Ningen when they the players had the advantage, but I think the transition to the colder, wetter areas was too much to handle without easing them in... and perhaps having the ability to return to town to shop and plan would have helped as well.
I have some thoughts on the Veins of the Earth generation, but I'll save that for the Caves of Ahz.
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| The Dewdrop |
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| The Kraken's Cage |
An entirely different kind of problem than the frozen mountain were the Hanged Gardens, three orbs ruled over by fey creatures and their dragons. (The third, not pictured, was essentially a ball of thorns with 20 dragon layers on the outside, leading to a grim castle). They could be reached by climbing down vines from the Chasm Vaults to the Dewdrop, or by sailing the Sky River, a twisting ribbon of water that came up from the ocean far below this unusually placed dungeon. Or, as the players opted for, riding a friendly dragon to them.
While it was a bit more clear the Dewdrop followed the Chasm Vaults, as you could climb down, the Sky-River connection was less clear. Complicating things was how arrival via beanstalk vine immediately dumped the players into areas with security- Redcaps checking tickets for access to the Stadium where a Satyr, a Siren, a Bard, and other higher-level problems were supported by gaggles of goblins and overwatched by 4 dragon-rider towers. This initial impression made the players think the Hanged Gardens were 'Fortress' style areas with organized monsters. This was... not really true, but is a good example of how pacing and intentional placement of rooms is important to ease the players into new challenges, lest they come to bad conclusions. If the players had a more relaxed entry to the Hanged Gardens, with easier means of escape, the area probably would not have seemed so fearsome. As is, the players did 'hit and run' until they assassinated the dragoons and the leader of the Dewdrop to rescue some POWs, and what exploration they did was mostly looting the dragonrider towers and getting exploded by nasty magic traps (or in one case teleported a hundred miles away into the dungeons of an Autocrat outpost via magic fountain).
I enjoyed the random encounters here- One thing to make random encounters more interesting is to mix them up. Rather than 3 trolls, have it be a troll atop a young dragon, or have a hydra with a bugbear on each head. Goblins using Gas Spores as hot hair balloons, spellcasting fairies hiding inside a carnivrous plant, etc etc. Mixing encounters like this and adding context is a good way to fill rooms with some intentionality and variety, and makes for great random encounters too. I was doing a bit of this in the frozen mountain caves, but I think this was among the best area for this due to the variety of Fey/Ningen/Plant/Dragon encounters. It definitely was one of the more thematic side areas, I just think I went too far in making the locale exotic as well. Had the Hanged Gardens been a more standard dungeon (a singular floating elvish palace, lets say) I think that would have allowed for more standard dungeon procedure to remain relevant, while the differing encounter tables would have kept it flavorful.
Levels 7- The Caves of Ahz and the Giant's House
These highest level areas were also favored by many players- in part because by this point I had started maximizing treasure results by disregarding all the 'Junk' results of sub-gold, and due to theming, a change of pace, and importantly, them being relatively easy to access, without the confusion of the frozen mountain and hanged garden's location.
The Giant's House was indeed a 'Fortress' style area and so it felt MUCH higher level. Everything was giant-sized, because the players and many inhabitants were Shrunken upon entering. The players ignored the strategy of the friendly NPC party who showed it was possible to lurk in the giant-sized gardens and wage guerilla warfare, and instead opted to infiltrate the place, stealing identity of defeated goons and passing the tests of loyalty and excellence and doing missions for an evil Rakshasa general. This was complicated in a game where the who's who of players available for each session was variable, and players had multiple characters each, but for the most part it was ok. The players had an area where they could politic and roleplay, and while it was admittedly limited to mostly doing so with evil villains, there was a bound ifrit who would grant wishes they cautiously interacted with to sabotage the Autocrats.
My only complaint here is that the players, in their infiltration role, didn't actually get to engage with any of the combat threats here apart from one fight with a 'wild' dragon I believe. So I didn't get to learn what their plan would be to deal with 2 oni mages, or wall guards who presented as a singular Giant with a Gun instead of a squad of 7 regular sized humans, or how they planned to take out a training ground of monkish dragoons or a 5 story library of evil wizards and monster zoos.
I do wonder if everything being Giant-Sized was another 'uneccessary gimmick' on top of an already interesting area- I didn't dislike it, and it led to interesting scenes like the gold-sorting bureaucrats being titanic 12HD giants instead of nerds to bully, and giant maids carting around the players on silver platters so they wouldn't be crushed by other giant serving staff, and dragons being shrunken but guards not being shrunken to keep the dragons from getting too uppity in case Orb Control slipped, and so on.
As a final note, having 'Fortress' areas inhabited by reasonable beings who don't want to dodge a spear-trap on the way to the bathroom, tends to be lacking in horrible dungeon traps, hazards, and interesting terrain- I had hoped to make concerns like 'the couch is giant' make up for this, but I think more detailed maps would be required to make that work.
Level 7 Also- The Caves of Ahz
This was an area whose only gimmick was being made with Veins of the Earth generation, though the flavor was of abandoned future-tech bunkers warped by Darkness (chaos, essentially) and earthquakes. The players set up their final long-term base in an old cafeteria here, because the area was forbidden by Nasariel, the elvish Autocrat, to enter, due to being full of horrible secrets like robot-gods, cloned tarrasques, and worse things the players never uncovered.
Its encounter tables were only undead, insects, and the flesh creatures, but this was the very top of the 'midrange' encounter tables. Fallen boulders and furniture could be mimics, heck entire walls, ceilings, and floors could be Trappers/Lurkers above, and the undead here had a flavor of 'radiation' instead of level drain- mutating could seriously alter a character for the negative, and they left contaminated glowing hazards upon death as well.
It was here that the players fought the most 'Jishen Musashi' an intelligent combination of AD&D Slicer, Deathwatch, and Earthquake beetles, expressed via wuxia and anime-style sword-techniques. These beetle-menaces were the guards of exits and entrances to the forbidden caves, and I think they left an impression.
The insect menaces were usually more 'problem' than 'combat encounter' as they came in burrrowing worm, rust-monster reskin, and swarms of goldbugs who were essentially 'fireball checks.' I didn't think the enemy variety was as good here, and for such a massive cave system it probably needed sub-areas within sub-areas. I did apply some intentionality in that respect, but alas the players mostly missed the right side of the map which was where I was starting to be more serious in applying what I learned.
I think part of the appeal of the Caves was the loot- it was full of high-tech guns and energy cells instead of 'Platinum coins' which provided loot in interesting and useful shapes.
One player enjoyed the mapping, but ultimately I found the Veins of the Earth mapping style to be awful similar to just being a 'point crawl' and I felt like it lacked some of the dungeon structure in a way that I would have trouble applying it even if I was hand-crafting an area.
Level 8- The Flesh Pits
I made the Flesh Pits towards the end of the campaign, having learned lessons from the rest of the dungeon, and was pretty excited for the players to push their luck and delve into a deep area of dungeon and see some of the content that was 'level locked' away after they had located it.
Naturally, after claiming interest in going there and confirming I should prep it, they only went back once and the area went unused. Classic!
As such I don't actually have much to say about the 5 labs (old and new) run by liches under Bak Mei, the vampire/necromancer autocrat, or the blood-river vampire town, or the demon caves, the lab fallen to the Flesh or his compound/laboratory, alas.
It might be interesting to show what the monsters were like in a level 8 area, tho.
1-2d6 Ball Lightning (5d6 lightning damage)
2-Zombie Squad-8d6 Zombies, 50% Biters, 25% Decoys(Veiled like mages, mirror spellcasting), 15% Flamers (d4 flame splash, explode), 10% Tasers (Tase for damage on hit, ignore metal) led by 1x Level 6 Necromancer
3-4- 2d6 Engulfers, likely imitating low-level dragoon squad
5-7- 2d6 Lesser Jiang Shi led by 8HD Necromancer
8-10- 1d3+1 Mix of Adult Blue Dragons and/or 8HD Dragoon Riders with ARs, Pikes, Flails, and Plate
11-14- 1d4 Flesh Dolls and a 8HD Necromancer.
15-16-Skeletal Champion Riding Old Dragon /2x Skeletal Champions
17-18- Jiang Shi or Trapper/Lurker/Wall of Flesh
19- Jiang Shi Minister (Cleric 9) or Lich OR Gate to Red Ynn
20- Bak Mei or Demon Lord
For quick combo-encounters, I could do something like 1d6 Lesser Jiang Shi instead of an Adult Blue Dragon on an 8-10 result. I feel like a singular Jiang-Shi or Trapper was the weakest result, as level 8 solo monsters don't have the action economy on their side as the half-dozen lesser monsters do, and don't have the raw power of a Lich or Demon Lord.
Favors And Miracles
I'm not going to go too far into detail here since I plan to change how it works, but the long story short was that I think it's a decent system that needs a bit more work. It seems to make the Gods feel more involved when the players can pray for aid without the mechanical necessity of 'being a cleric' or 'spending loadsa money on scrolls for pre-approved specific miracles.' It also can work for when the players are out on lengthy quests like Odysseus being blown from monster-infested island to island and don't have access to civilization.
Other Minor Houserules
I think the later editions of D&D might have it right by adding +4d6 damage or whatever instead of using multipliers.
I gave bonus XP for making meals out of monsters mid-dungeon because I love Delicious in Dungeon. The players engaged with this a little bit, but mostly forgot it existed or ran into trouble with inedible monsters and cannibalism being their only options. I think this is a case of needing to plan dungeons more carefully and to provide more interesting rewards for the cooking subsystem, possibly unifying it with potions/herbalism.
I think I liked abstracting food somewhat to mean 'you need to find a new source of food every 3 days' but the details of level-drain from Starving I used from Veins of the Earth felt a little finicky.
I allowed wizards to attempt casting even if they get hit, with potentially character-ending miscast tables that must be battled. This was usually enough to convince wizards to abort their spell instead, but I think it was alright as a 'push your luck' system.
And while it was not as dramatic a change, I think I got a lot of interesting takeaways.
This was a terribly lengthy and rambly post that probably would have been better to write 1 paragraph a week, rather than all at the end of the campaign. My condolences if you read it all and feel no wiser!
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