To those of whom are not familiar, not all of the Mindflayer population are brain-hungry tyrannical overlords desiring world dominations. Some are content with simpler things, brain wine, a bar- and monkeys interested in furthering their research. An illithid offers a few brave- daring, possibly stupid adventurers an opportunity to walk into an ancient Keep upon the surface from his memories, and watch how they react.
They enter Castle SCHMERZ.
Quest Range: 5-11
Length: Roughly one hour or more.
Themes: Pain, Horror, Terror
Spawntypes: Undead, Possessed Guardsmen, Vampires, Golems.
Traps: Yes, poison, spike, and negative energy.
Atmosphere: Dark and oppressive.
Number of Areas: 3
Area Names: Exterior, Interior, Crypts
There will be a rest opportunity on the inside of the crypts once cleared.
Players must take control of the outside walls, but discover the entrance is barred by a heavy key. The Crypts hold a mini-boss in possession of the key, on their exit, a set of spawns greet them and they must once more fight their way to the castle walls and to the entrance of the keep. On the interior, they are greeted by a series of statues detailing the history of Castle Schmerz, its heroes, villains, and battles. As an optional side quest, one of these portraits will transport the players to take part as 'mercenaries' in one of the battles of the Keep, and offer a suitable reward.
Inside the keep will also be a shrine to Bane, and they can fight the faithful who dwell within for additional plunder in the form of 'goodly' loot about to be sacrificed, or 'evil' equipment blessed by Bane. It will favor the two alignment extremes.
They eventually climb to the top of the Keep, where they encounter the Lord, whose Steward will offer them an opportunity to turn back and away in exchange for a handsome amount of gold. Players can either accept or refuse, if refused, they must battle the Steward, the Lord's Wife, and the Lord himself until conflict is finished. If players die, they automatically awaken in the Dream Chamber, having failed, and cannot return to aid their compatriots.
Gear: Medieval oriented armors and design, favoring chain shirts and such. Rings, necklaces, and more will be available. Healing items.
Boss Loot: Some form of full plate, necklace, or scepter.
Upon success, the Illithid Informs them that any gear they found in the 'dream' came be provided for by him, so anything found can be brought out by the players.
Exterior Design:
(http://i.gyazo.com/b86e4861daf705c0588dc0704443deb2.png)
Interior Design:
(http://i.gyazo.com/1267b0579979ed518a07beff77650d3c.png)
Crypts:
(http://i.gyazo.com/bfc9a353762c76b1d3c861c74f0187a2.png)
Thoughts?
Disclaimer: Lukedanger designed the area, I added details such as placables and stuff for Exterior/Interior, Crypts is my own design.
Why are you posting these *spoilers* publicly?
Quote from: TalirA few tips for building:
The two main contributions we seek from players are quest areas and exploration areas.
Quest areas:- ... are one or a few areas linked together to form a seamless dungeon with its own unique story and loot.
- Know what level range and party size you aim for. Most of the time you will not know it for sure until it has been tested.
- If the quest is to have a boss, you will have to make it yourself. Unless it is meant to have unique monsters, just let us know what creatures is intended for the dungeon.
- Put all the loot in containers (//%22http://www.efupw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93460#%22) somewhere in the area. Create one box for all the loot, and another box for any special loot (boss loot).
- Keep things trim. Do not make sprawling areas.
- Make the story for the quest. Why are the characters doing it? What happens at the end?
Nothing about not posting spoilers. The idea is that it's a haunted castle and you're fucking it over so this Illithid can study you guys doing it. It's not like spawn abilities, trap placement, and such were involved- I merely desired to display the narrative and the journey that the players would take in order to accomplish their mission.
Well, posting screenshots and such sort of lets would be quest takers anticipate the different nuances of the quest, no?
Well, posting screenshots and such sort of lets would be quest takers anticipate the different nuances of the quest, no?
Sure, until the quest area is changed.
It would make for an interesting quest.
The only problem, there's losing xp upon death?
When you respawn from the fugue, you're automatically transported to the 'real world' as if you're waking up from the dream tank. So there is xp loss.
Okay, so then why were you sent to the fugue in a dream?
Quote from: Gloinar;391933Okay, so then why were you sent to the fugue in a dream?
Because you died?
Respawning from death isn't 'dying', it's like being knocked out and suffering an injury that makes you slightly weaker, which is why you can't respawn when a PC kills you- you're actually dead.
I guess if you perma, you got enthralled/turned into brain food for the illithid
There is precedent for Dream Tank quests. It's always been kind of a weird notion, but it's not a stretch to think that if you let an illithid put you in a dream tank, that you might suffer long term or permanent side effects up to and including death.
Otherwise, Thomas, the quest sounds pretty good.
Quote from: "Spiffy Has"As an optional side quest, one of these portraits will transport the players to take part as 'mercenaries' in one of the battles of the Keep, and offer a suitable reward.
Seems kind of ambitious and might serve to dilute the quest itself.
I'd recommend focusing on the themes a good deal more:
It's an illithid braintrap, designed to elicit feelings of terror and desperation. There are a great number of fun things that you can do in the toolset with minimal scripting in order to make a dungeon feel like a hostile entity on its own.
Creating atmosphere with well-placed sound effects, descriptive placeables, floating text pop ups describing scenes of gore -
A quest where players willingly subsume themselves in Abberant horror has a great deal of potential. It would perhaps be a relatively simple task to write a script that will individually isolate each party member and send them separate and conflicting messages.
Furthermore, consider the relative
embargo that exists on travel to the Sleeping Pyrimo. Assembling a group for this quest would be difficult in the first place, so a party size of 3-5 is about the most you could expect, and including options for Good-Aligned PCs seems naive.
If you want to bounce ideas back and forth, you can holler at me on IRC.
Something else you need to consider is that how highly illithid's are stigmatized in the new setting. Very few people would do this quest unless it was either highly profitable or its illithid mastermind was some way concealed.
EDIT: Kotenku beat me to it.
There is a place heavily hinted at in these posts where this would fit in perfectly. And honestly if you are staying where this quest would be. Then you honestly do not care how stigmatizing it is. I like the idea and I suggest you develop the core idea more Thomas, and work on a test version. I know the areas slightly. And it would be better if the quest was more related to. You walk up in a desperate and losing Castle SCHMERZ and you see the death and destruction of a castle siege raining about you. And the player party must fight through hordes of shadowy monstrous beasts which are not quite defined. They flicker through the visages of goblins, hobgoblins, and, kobolds. And once the invading force is slaughtered, the troops outside if any remain living invite you to go inside for your just reward. Which is then the lord and lady along with the throne room guards betraying the party.
The above I feel is something more akin to a mindflayer's dream tank instead of being told to go somewhere and destroy it. You are being told to defend something. You are given something that is swiftly being destroyed around you. And you must fight or die. It forces an emotional investment in the castle you must now protect. Because it gives the "If this falls, I die" mentality.
Suggested new range:
Level range 5-12
Party size 2-8
Alignment: Non-good only
This sounds like a really fun and challenging quest.
Having issues removing certain CEP haks. Might just have to rebuild area from Scratch.
Three full quest areas full of monsters is going to be a real pain in the ass to get through. I am expecting it would take an hour and a half with an expert group that is well geared, well experienced, and going a power gaming route. But for many players it would take well up to three hours.
I am suggesting:
- Trim down the area
- Limit the options. It is sweet to have the extra quest area and the big giant back story to the castle, but in the long run it is not going to have that much benefit to players. People are already going on a long quest and it would take even longer to do the extra mercenary side-quest. I do love the idea of being paid off or offing the lord, lady, and steward.
- Keep the statues/portraits depicting former rulers
In the end, this is an ilithid brain trap so perhaps the quest could start off with finding a strange pool of liquid and drinking from it, or finding the ilithid's lair and being caught in a trap. That way through out the quest you can see the ilithid from time to time laughing or doing cruel things to you.
Quote from: Part-time Player;416290In the end, this is an ilithid brain trap so perhaps the quest could start off with finding a strange pool of liquid and drinking from it, or finding the ilithid's lair and being caught in a trap. That way through out the quest you can see the ilithid from time to time laughing or doing cruel things to you.
The quest is intended to be placed in a specific place rather than what you suggest so perhaps not. Plus, by doing so it would create loot complications amongst others, which is why the original suggestion for placement and explanation makes the most sense.
Sorry I should of explained my idea better. I was meaning that you would still find/do the quest and go into a quest area to start the main dream sequence