TOPIC: True Dungeon Celebration Riddle Reveal

This is where I will post information on the True Dungeon Celebration adventure.

I want to thank Jeff and Lori for making such a great event possible. I really had a lot of fun.

Thanks to all the volunteers, especially the DMs and NPCs in the dungeon. I think they did a great job.

Thanks to the backstage crew that handled set-up, props, tear-down, etc. It's awesome to have such reliable people around.

Thanks to the players, without whom this would be a pretty strange hobby.

ROOM 1 - THE OPENING TABLE

Thanks to Mike N. for being such a great NPC.

The party entered the room and saw that there were gears or sprockets spread throughout the room. It was clear that they had to assemble them on a table with posts spread out. On one corner was a box labelled "door lock."

The party finds that there aren't enough gears to reach the door lock, but there is a locked treasure chest. The chest was locked with a trick lock, requiring a button to be pushed with the key in order to reveal a secret keyhole. At first the secret keyhole could be revealed by sliding a piece of the lock, but that was because the lock was broken. When it was replaced with the proper trick lock, it was harder to figure out. Occasionally the NPC would have to give the party clues to help them approach the lock differently.

When the lock was opened, the party discovered two more gears in the chest, making it possible for them to solve the puzzle. Many parties were very excited to solve it right before time ended.

Thanks to party members who helped reset the room.

ROOM 2 - THE DOMED ROOM

Many people loved the look of this large, circular room. The party enters to find a variety of weapons and objects displayed on a large circle table. There is a door at one end of the room, which the DM explains is locked. A pedestal by the door slowly blinks red every few seconds. Above the door is a sign that reads

YOU MUST EMIT RESPECT TO ENTER.

The first letter of each word was larger than the others, except for "emit" and "respect," wherein the "T" and "S" were larger respectively.

The solution to the room was to touch the Scepter (anagram of "respect") at the same Time (anagram of "emit") the light on the pedestal.was glowing. When that happened, the DM told the party the door opened and they could proceed.

Many groups decided that they had to touch the scepter to the pedestal when they both glowed red at the same time - enough people did it that we made it a requirement for HC and NM groups.

A rogue box contained the clue, "Look at the first letter of each word - why are some different?"

Thanks to Adam P. for doing a great job as a DM. I understand he tortured party members with bad jokes and puns!

ROOM 3 - A STICKY SITUATION

The party will leave the domed chamber and they immediately take a left turn down a short corridor. It will end in a curtain and the party will wait there until the Room 3 DM arrives. The DM will tell the players that they are in a muck filled room that smells bad like a sewer is nearby. Also, the sound of dripping water can be heard in the distance.

The DM will tell the party that a player has fallen into a sloped pit passage, and has disappeared into the next room. The DM will then take that player away and tell the others to wait until she returns. The DM will explain to the first player that they have been knocked unconscious by the fall and captured inside a giant Gelatinous Cube and that they should stand inside the monster prop and pretend they are unconscious inside while the party fights the monster

Once the first player is in place, the DM will retrieve the rest of the party and bring them into the room. When they are all in, the DM will tell the party they all carefully went down the ramp and now they have found the first player encased in some kind of giant cube that is now attacking them. Combat then begins.

A character that has some method to avoid the fall (ex. Featherfall), will not be unconscious upon first entering the room, but will still be engulfed by the awaiting cube.

If the entrapped character has Freedom of Movement, they may leave the cube if they are conscious.
Unconscious characters will be awakened if they are struck or awakened by some other means (horn of alertness)

Special Defense: Ooze immunities, Immune to critical hits, sneak attacks, Shock, Fire, Poison, mind-effecting magic, Stun, and Daze.

SPECIAL ATTACK: Each time the Cube successfully hits a character, that character must succeed on a DC 15 (Hardcore = 18, Nightmare = 20) Fortitude saving throw or be paralyzed by anesthetizing slime for one round (till the end of the room on nightmare) and enveloped by the cube (only 1 character allowed in cube at a time, 2 on nightmare). Characters stuck in the cube cannot be killed on normal or hardcore (only reduced to 1 hp)

RETRIBUTION DAMAGE
If the engulfed character is struck by a party member, RD is absorbed by the cube. If the Cube attacks a party member and that person has an RD effect, the RD will damage the Cube but not the engulfed character.

Victory: If the party defeats the Gelatinous Cube, the DM will congratulate them and tell them that they were able to rescue their companion. The DM will tell them they can proceed further into the sewer once the time is ready.

Defeat: If the party does not manage to defeat the Gelatinous Cube before the 12 minutes are up, the DM will announce that the party was eventually able to defeat the monster, but in doing so all party members took 6 (HC = 9, NM = 15) points of irresistible combat damage during the remains of the battle.

Stats:
Eight people died in room 3, all were killed by a fellow party member while inside the cube. All were also raised from the dead.

Only one party suffered push damage by not defeating the cube in time.

Three parties scored over 300 damage in a single round on the cube.

The highest amount of damage done to a trapped player in one round was 168.

Several groups used creative techniques to free characters from the cube:
Rope and grappling hook, iron rod, paladin leaping into the cube (huzzah!), universal solvent, and a rogue unintentionally stumbling into the cube.

ROOM 4 - THE ENERGY GRID

The party enters room 4 but cannot proceed because of a buildup of energy. They see a 6 X 6 grid with icons for the different energy sources on it. A sign on the wall reads

Eight types of mystic energy
Shown here as runes for you to see
That each has foe for which is opposed
And most unlike you would suppose
So take the bars and lace them plain
So foes are linked, thus power drained

A sign also lists the eight types of energy featured: fire, cold, shock, sonic, psychic, darkrift, sacred, and force.

There were bars on a table of different lengths. The party had to place all four bars on the table so that each one linked a pair of "opposing" energy sources. The bars could not overlap.

There were several solutions to the puzzle. Some groups had trouble b/c the sign listing the energy sources seemed to show them in pairs, but the pairs were not the correct opposing energy types.

Cold vs fire
Sonic vs shock
Sacred vs darkrift
Psychic vs force

The rogue box clue said, "Force is opposed to psychic energy."

Kudos to Linda P for doing such a great job in this room!

ROOM 5 - THE SHAMBLER

As the party enters the room, they notice it is filled with fog and greenery. The DM tells the party that the floor is covered with water and the room must be drained before the party can proceed (there were plans for a laser to represent the water, but it didn't work out). There are switches on the opposite side of the room, and the DM tells the party someone must cross the room and flip the switch, but the floor is so slippery only the highest DEX character should make the attempt. When s/he does, a shambling mound attacks!

It's a fairly straightforward combat, with some special exceptions. Characters other than the first who crossed the room must spend a round to carefully cross the room if they want to make a melee attack - they can attack right away with ranged attacks or spells.

The shambling mound has plant subtype immunities - immune to mind-affecting magic (Charm, hold, sleep, etc.), immune to blunt weapon damage, immune to shock, critical hits, and sneak attacks. It is not immune to fire, but unlike most plants, it does not take extra damage from fire due to the wet environment.

A bard who does a rune check would be told ths shambling mounds are immune to blunt damage. NORMAL level parties were also told it was immune to shock damage.

For HC and NM parties, if a shock spell was cast, the water in the room conducted the damage to all party members. This led to one party being TPKed when the druid cast a spell-surged Call Lightning spell.

Great job by Matt W the DM and Andrew O the shambler!

ROOM 6 - THE SEWER EXIT

This room is actually a two-puzzle room. There is no discernible exit. The party sees a platform with the outline of an obelisk on it, and a steam pipe with ten disks on it. These disks spin, and there is also one that is fixed. There are also several large blocks spread throughout the room.

There is a sign on the wall saying the following:

To open now the way within,
A challenge now you must begin.
The pylon first you must restore,
And then align the dials once more,
So that the steam will flow anew -
There total sum will be this CLUE.

The first challenge is to use the blocks to build the obelisk on the platform. The rogue's box in this room contains the clue, "The small cubes must be built diagonally." Few parties had much trouble with this part of the puzzle.

When the obelisk is built, the DM says that steam is now flowing, and they must release it to open the pathway.

At this point the party starts to spin the disks. Each disk is divided into six parts with a symbol in each section. The fixed disk has the top section outlined in red, indicating to the party that the relevant symboks must be oriented at the top of the disks.

The disks must be aligned to spell OPEN, so the steam is released and the pathway revealed. The disks would look like

( ) Top of "P" Bottom of "P" I - - - Left half of "N" Right half of "N"


This room had a 0% success rate on Friday, even with multiple people doing multiple runs. Many parties tried to form the word CLUE, since it was capitalized on the sign. Other parties focused on the word "sum," and used the dashes as minus signs to try to cancel symbols.

We felt that we had to do something to alleviate that, but anything that was a change would stand out with a giant "NOTICE THIS" sign on it. The word "open" was underlined on the sign, giving parties a clearer clue about what to do.

Perhaps we should have just leave things as they were, or maybe have the DM be more open with clues, such as, "Now you must open the steam pipe to release the pressure." Or perhaps a second rogue box for another clue in the room.

Thanks to Simon the DM for doing a great job in this room!

ROOM 7 - THE TREASURE VAULT

The players finally enter the treasure vault for which they have been seeking. The room is filled with items of treasure and a large gargoyle with a gargoyle combat board. Under the gargoyle's feet is a glowing hammer - the Hammer of Foss Altus!

Nothing happens until a player touches the hammer. When s/he does, a sound effect occurs and an NPC appears - Death itself has come to challenge the party!

The party gets one round to prepare for combat - buff spells, effects, etc. The player who touched the hammer may yield it in combat, regardless of class. The hammer token had a damage wheel with two bursts - if a player slides a natural 20 with the hammer token and one of the bursts is closest to the damage indicator, Death would be killed immediately (I saw this happen once).

Originally Death would attack three different characters and do 5/8/10 points of unpreventable eldritch damage to each (the paladin's guard ability was ineffective against this). Over time, we saw that Death's attacks were not effective enough, so Death could combine attacks against a single (or dual) target(s). This was still not enough, especially against HC and NM groups, so Death gained the power of Deathtouch - Death would target a character who would then have to make a FORT saving throw - failure meant the character died. Only a Savior Stone or Druegar's Death Die could prevent this.

Players who defeated Death were told they teleported to the surface and safety.

Death has the undead subtype, meaning it was immune to mind-affecting magic, charm, sleep, poison, hold, near attacks, and critical hits. Death suffers double damage from sacred energy.

The bard lore check would reveal that Death has strong magic resistance (50%/50%/75%), but that healing spells cast on Death do damage to it (double damage on N and HC, single damage on NM).

Over the course of the weekend, some parties remembered the words of the NPCs in the training area and in room 1, They were told that if all party members touched the hammer and lifted it, they would be teleported to safety. Several parties tried to do this during the prep period. For NORMAL level groups, we decided to reward this by allowing them to successful teleport out without having to face Death - they was NOT part of the original room description. HC and NM groups that tried this were told they still had to face and defeat Death. I understand some parties were upset that they were denied the solution to the room, but it was meant to be a combat room - the "solution" was to defeat Death. I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion.

reserved for secret cow room

Incognito wrote: reserved for secret cow room

Quack.

Incognito wrote: reserved for secret cow room

Get that cow out of here!

First two rooms done - sorry to be taking so long, but 1. the forum is now blocked at school, and 2. grades are due this week, so I am in correcting mode.