A Sapient Megadungeon is You (Generic D&Dish fantasy)

[iamnuff]

For the name: I suggest 'Hidden Palace'. Sculpt a face on wall of the final room, talk to people there. Sell them a story.

Story: Basically, we go with Kinglugia's layout and make use of all that decoration on the walls to convince people the 3 rooms we have at the top are actually just the ENTRANCE to a palace. There is the 'pleasure palace' of a powerful wizard hidden below the rooms at the top, but it requires a 'key' to gain entrance to the deeper levels.

The 'key' is of course... Blood on the ground of our third room. The blood of someone who has the blood of the wizard! Of course, he had many concubines, and many of his descendants no doubt live still. You should be able to recognize them by their magical power, though, and all you need to do is bring them here and have them bleed some on the floor.

We'll be happy to open the way to a treasure trove of wealth and magical knowledge in return.

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wouldn't that have people realize "i don't have the key" then just not bother coming in? unless you mean that any wizard should be able to open it. (or try to)

i'm not sure if a couple of drops of blood could meaningfully feed us.

have to ask the GM.

I prefer my "gameshow" style option. personally.

you don't need to pretend to be bigger, make it perfectly clear that you are GETTING bigger, with every adventurer that comes in.

your power (and treasure!) is growing.

also make it perfectly clear that you don't actually stand to gain anything by sending monsters out to kill people, because you only gain power from people who fail INSIDE you.

make it clear that we are an adventurer thing only, they don't need to worry about us unleashing a hoard of monsters on the hapless villagers.

"if you win, you get the treasure, if you lose, i get the power" then, after we grow a bit, and gain some nonlethal traps, we can turn it into an industry.

dozens of people a day come in seeking our riches, some get the gold, and some feed us for a while, before we let them go.

then they try again, and again, and again.

and we get bigger and bigger and bigger.

 

[Robotninja]

Or we send out monsters to harass people in order to draw more adventurers to purge the monsters. Mostly taking livestock, etc. . . .
We should upgrade our monsters next. Kobolds can be very, very deadly with traps. Then we upgrade magic for magic traps.

 

[Fellgar]

I'll throw in behind the hidden palace vote.

 

[iamnuff]

Or we send out monsters to harass people in order to draw more adventurers to purge the monsters. Mostly taking livestock, etc. . . .
We should upgrade our monsters next. Kobolds can be very, very deadly with traps. Then we upgrade magic for magic traps.

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do we WANT to be more deadly?

I'll throw in behind the hidden palace vote.

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and what does this gain us? other than a reputation for being worthless to anyone who doesn't have a "key" that doesn't actually exist?

we should use the entrence of the cave to talk to people, not a wall at the very back, and we shouldn't tell them we have stuff that we don't.

a reputation for honesty and gold is worth more than a lie about powerful (but untouchable) knowledge.

 

[ShaperV]

I'd like to propose a combination of the ideas given above:

[X] Voice: Pretend to be an elemental spirit bound by some ancient wizard to guard the entrance to his hidden lair/pleasure palace. Our persona is lonely and not too bright, and clever adventurers can easily talk us into revealing 'secret' information like the location of the entrance to the wizard's lair (always our last room, for now) and how to open it (a few drops of blood from a direct descendant, or more for someone less directly related).

[X] Room 1: Entrance - 20' diameter round room
-[X] Monsters: 3 wild dogs
-[X] Treasure: Locked chest of silver coins, failing to pick the lock makes a spike shoot up from the floor right where a person would naturally stand to open it.

[X] Room 2: Hallway - 10' wide hallway with a downward slope
-[X] Trap: rolling boulder trap tied to pressure plate at the half way point of the hallway. pressure plate is armed by trap chest in the third room, so it isn't armed when the party enters.
-[X] other monsters & treasure TBD when party enters, so we can adjust lethality on the fly

[X] Room 3: final chamber - 15' x 15' square room
-[X] Traps:
-[X] Opening treasure chest has 25% chance of arming boulder trap in 2
-[X] Pressure plate in room entrance is only triggered by massive weight (i.e. boulder), causes floor to sides of entrance to collapse into pit
-[X] other monsters & treasure TBD when party enters, so we can adjust lethality on the fly
-[X] Treasure: Locked chest of gold with a few gems.
-[X] all light sources are dimed by 50%

This gives us the basic framework of a layout that makes us look appealing for repeat visits despite our small size, but will TPK occasional groups to improve our blood yield. Against peasants we'd leave the above layout alone, while for more experienced groups we'd add more traps and/or monsters in rooms 2 & 3 to give them a decent fight.

Once we level up we can expand the above a bit, then create a real hidden area with higher lethality and occasionally let people who bleed on the proper patch of floor into it. This gives our dungeon an interesting twist that will get people to talk about it (increasing visitors) while also letting us arbitrarily control access without raising suspicions about our real nature. Further complications to the story ('enemies of the wizard are teleported to certain death!') can be added in the future as we invent them.

 

[Ct613hulu]

[X] Shaper v

 

[BFldyq]

[X] ShaperV's Plan

 

[megrisvernin]

[X] ShaperV's Plan

 

[Fellgar]

[X] ShaperV's Plan

 

[Silversun17]

[X] ShaperV's Plan

close enough to mine for me to be happy.

 

[Darik29]

[X] ShaperV's Plan

It is an amazing piece of deception, and even makes a certain amount of sense for there to be more gold for each adventurer party. After all, its a Wizards Abandonded Lair. Of course its got magical replenishing chest of wealth, alongside traps and critters.

Every few party's, if recommend we make a Big Ass diamond, and have that be set up in the final room above a reverse pressure plate, that causes the whole place to do a Rocks Fall, but gives the Adventurers a warning first, and collapse rooms in intervals Behind the Adventurers as they escape with there new massive diamond.

We Can create such an impressive Diamond, thanks to Wealth 2. And it makes a Wonderful draw for the more treasure hungry, if a Diamond comes out of us every now and then.


Here's hoping we can possibly earn ourselves a Divine/Demonic Challenge like was offered in OP. Will be sad if we can never Aquire such a thing.

 

[imposter36]

Shaper V. I'm happy with the boulder drops

 

[Darkened]

after that, we should try and find a way to get energy from people without killing them.

GM did mention love potion traps, and a lot of my new idea's are NSFW, so i'm not going into too much detail unless the quest gets transfered to the other board.

lets just say non-acidic slimes could be a good way to entrap and "Drain" adventurers.

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To clarify, you get energy from death. If people really push to go NSFW, I don't really have any objections there, but I probably wouldn't get very explicit about anything.

That said, you're a sentient dungeon powered by death and despair from 'fair' kills. There are eventually non-lethal options for growth and this isn't all that far off from some of them, but you're going to have a very hard time getting away from doing bad things to a wide variety of people.

You can, however, push the dungeon to develop a personality as a troll who finds love potion fiascos hilarious, or just develop a thing for slimes. It's starting out in a "eat eat eat" mentality. There's no reason it has to stay there. The configurations you design, the attitudes you take, even the merits you pick, will determine what kind of individual the dungeon becomes.

Depending on how things go, you may find paths to live entirely without the whole mass murder bit, but that's the kind of endgame condition that's a long way off, and it'll be pretty tricky.

Someone who can play the same part of "non-lethal draining" as the slimes, but mobile instead of a trap, and with more Mez/daze abilities, to make her more successful.

no direct combat, but something like having her cast spells on specific objects, or set up a big empty room with a glass pane in the middle, make them think it's a mirror, then their "reflection" suddenly hit's them with a eye-contact based Daze or something.

We could do that by summoning one up from the underworld, trying to create one, or just hiring one. we get half the energy she takes, and in return we give her a place to live and hunt from, a endless torrent to prey comes to her, and our monsters and traps (hopefully) keep her from getting killed.

a symbiotic relationship, and a decent use of our "Voiced" merit. (does this make us a Demon-cave-pimp?)

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Offhand, I believe I had a basic succubus at magic 5+, Monsters 4+ and Traps 4+. Since you grabbed darkness, that drops all of them by one because of the whole bat look. That would be for a generic repeatably summonable type. What you want would probably best be gained from grabbing a champion merit after/around meeting those prereqs.



It seems like ShaperV's plan is emerging as the consensus. So I'll go ahead and start on the update.

While I'm working on the update: did everyone voting for ShaperV want to go Cavern of Lewd Perversions or the Hidden Palace?



Edit: Didn't realize I could do this here. Since configuration is locked in, let's see what you get

1-2- Warrior
3-4 Thief
5 Cleric
Not mean enough to do this the first round- wizard

[blockquote]Rolled 2d5 : 4, 3, total 7[/blockquote]

1-2- Peasant
3-9- Hireling
10- Adventurer
[blockquote]Rolled 2d10 : 3, 1, total 4[/blockquote]

 

[Silversun17]

While I'm working on the update: did everyone voting for ShaperV want to go Cavern of Lewd Perversions or the Hidden Palace?

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how about both?

 

[iamnuff]

how about both?

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I want the Lewd idea, obviously, but theres no reason we can't mix it into the "crazy wizards stronghold" idea.

I mean, wizards be fucking crazy.

Offhand, I believe I had a basic succubus at magic 5+, Monsters 4+ and Traps 4+. Since you grabbed darkness, that drops all of them by one because of the whole bat look. That would be for a generic repeatably summonable type. What you want would probably best be gained from grabbing a champion merit after/around meeting those prereqs.

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so, 4/3/3? noted.
champion would be good, but just generic succubus would give us a way to beat and humiliate adventurers, without killing them. which could get us the start of our repeat business.

even if it's not the huge "people keep coming back because we have a reputation for not killing people who fail" thing i hoped for from the beginning.

That said, you're a sentient dungeon powered by death and despair from 'fair' kills. There are eventually non-lethal options for growth and this isn't all that far off from some of them, but you're going to have a very hard time getting away from doing bad things to a wide variety of people.

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hmm, would love potion bullshit even help us grow? at all?

as for slimes, that was mostly an example of something that could entrap without killing.

as for not doing "bad things to people" I never even considered that as an option. I was just asking if "bad things" has to mean "killing them"

if we can draw energy from people without killing them, (other stuff instead of blood? humiliation instead of despair?)

Depending on how things go, you may find paths to live entirely without the whole mass murder bit, but that's the kind of endgame condition that's a long way off, and it'll be pretty tricky.

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does this mean energy draining traps and monsters (like the non-acidic slime) is impossible? or just that it doesn't give us as much power as killing people?

 

[BFldyq]

So we get 2 thieves, a hireling and a peasant, right off the bat. Blast.

 

[Silversun17]

So we get 2 thieves, a hireling and a peasant, right off the bat. Blast.

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might be a good batch to let go and spread word of us.

 

[Larekko12]

Someone did the Tripwire infront of a PRessure plate thing right? With Arrows hitting all around?

 

[Darkened]

"Relax little bro, when have I ever led you wrong?" Vic's words send a shrivel of fear down the younger boy's spine. Not that anyone can tell Wil is the younger brother by looking at him. That's not to say Vic is tiny, just that Wil is built something like a cross between an ape and a bull. No one would expect him to be so agile on top of that.

Despite that, the bigger of the two bandits defers almost instinctively to his brother. Even if it keeps ending badly. Speaking of which...

"Just a bunch o' dirt farmers..." Wil does his best imitation of his brother's voice, only to get cut him off with a wave of Vic's hand

"Beside that ol' story."

"Aint no trouble at all, Robbing carriages in the wood'll be easy as taking candy..."

"And how the hell was I supposed to know the damnfloating carriage had got a wizard inside. Anyway, this old cave is full of kobolds and what's easier to rob than goddam kobolds? No one'll even care that we're doing it. Hell they'll probably give us a kobold-killing medal or something. It'll be easy as taking candy from a baby!"

Wil sighs, and shakes his head. "We do fine when it's all punching up a few old women and mugging folks off the street, but every big plan you have..."

"Think about it Wil! This is our ticket the big time, kill some kobolds, level up, get some loot. Today a cave full of kobolds, tomorrow actual highwaymen! And then, real bandits! Terrifying villages, living in the hills, don't you want that?"

Wil hesitates, then nods. He never can resist when Vic gets that far off look in his eyes. His older brother's always looked out for him since he was a kid, so Wil has to take care of him back. Besides, it's just kobolds, what's the worst that could happen?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++Encountered Peasant Mugger Vic, and Hireling Wil the Bandit++++

You stir into awareness as you feel your next meal approach. The smaller of the two shouting excitedly as he picks up some of that shiny yellow metal you scattered around and waves it in front of his companion's face.

Hello?

Your voice echoes from the cave causing both to jump and face the cave mouth, drawing weapons as they do.

It's been so long since we had guests. Not that we're supposed to have guests in the hiding place....

You try to speak more quietly this time as you lay the first seeds of deception, portraying yourself as an idiot, and hinting of values in the cave. You find the meat's puzzled expressions oddly satisfying and resolve to play up the act even more.

"What are you?" The smaller one speaks again. Perhaps he's the leader of the two.

A spirit bound by magic for all time.

The two share a quick exchange of whispers with the smaller one holding up the metal he found and pointing repeatedly.

"So, umm... spirit? Why are you here then?"

I may not speak of the treasures I watch.

Now the larger one seems excited too.

"Treasures?"

I am bound to say nothing of the treasures hidden behind the veil of darkness in this cave.

The two practically shove each other aside as they race to enter. If your voice was something you used instinctively you would surely be terrifying them with bouts of uncontrollable laughter. Is food really so foolish as to enter the predator's mouth? Regardless, such deceptions are simply too enjoyable. There have to be smarter foods than these prey, but even so you find yourself resolving to toy with them more and more.

The two would-be adventurers light torches--so they are capable of some intelligent action after all--and begin to search the first room, moving with a little more care than you'd like as they squint through through the darkness, trying futily to get any sense of the room's size and shape.

You shouldn't enter... And would you mind feeding the dogs if you're here, I do think the poor dears have been let starve for too long.

Falling back to back, the two humans prepare themselves. Perhaps you shouldn't have given the warning, but this is too fun to let it be over that quickly. The first of the dogs in the room lunges at them from the shadows. The larger of the two, and the quicker to your surprise, wastes no time in meeting the creature, bringing a hatchet down on the dog's head with such force that it crushes the skull, and lodges itself firmly inside the dog's head.

His partner, acting with less skill and strength, is tackled by the second of your dogs before managing to thrust a knife into the starving beast's throat, killing it with moments to spare. He tries to shove the corpse aside and rise to his feet, but is far too slow to do more than shout a warning to the larger adventurer. Not that his companion is quick enough to do anything about the last dog, melting out of the shadows with hunger and madness in his eyes.

The dog's teeth sink deep into the larger adventurer's leg, provoking a scream of sweet agony before the big one frantically begins pounding the dog's skull with his bare hands until it staggers off dazed. With a growl of rage and frustration he grabs his torch with both hands and begins to hammer the dog with it. Screaming as he does. His frantic attacks are undisciplined and unfocused, but there is an undeniable amount of strength behind them.

Only after the torch has been reduced to mere splinters does he stop attacking. wincing in pain and examining his wound he finally manages to retrieve the hatchet before limping back to his brother.

The sweet taste of blood distracts you from giving a prompt reply and the two resume their search of the room's perimeter

Oh the poor dogs...

"Bastards tried to kill us."

Well they had to guard the chest in the center of the room of course.

Predictably the adventurers perk up at that. You don't quite understand why they'd want these shining metals, but it's simply so adorable to watch as they hurry away from the walls to find the chest.

The larger of the two wastes no time in examining the lock, then proceeds to pull out a thin set of needles and dismantle your creation, disarming the spike trap below without even really seeming to notice it.

"Hey spirit! This isn't gold!" the smaller shouts in anger as he kicks the chest full of silver, failing to do more than bruise his foot in the process. How curious, you thought the food enjoyed such metals as you put in that chest. Was this an insult?

Of course not, the gold is...

"Yeah, where?"

I must obey the master's orders. I must not say that the gold's hidden at the entrance to the wizard's lair.

You add a hint of mechanization to your voice, as if repeating a mantra you've been instructed a thousand times.

"And where is this lair?"

I cannot tell you.

The louder of the two finally chimes up. "It outside? somewhere?"

It is not.

"Further in the cave?"

I cannot tell you.

"Vic, why don't we just take the silver and go. My leg's hurt and we only have the one torch between..." The smaller one--Vic's-- torch chooses that moment to die, its light finally consumed by your shadows. The panicked glance the two share is simply too amusing for words.

"We don't even have any more torches. If we have to fight something else we could die here. This is already more than we planned to..."

"Come on Wil!" Vic ignores his companion's requests as he rises to his feet, and struggles blindly to find the entrance to the next room. Wil sighs regretfully, then stumbles after, clutching his shoulder.

You were worried they might do the smart thing and just leave. Though that might attract more adventurers in the long run, something in you finds their struggles far too amusing to let them go.


1. What traps did you arrange in the second room?
[ ] Nothing besides the boulder that will trigger later
[ ] Describe traps/beasts

2. Keep talking?
[ ] Keep up this act
[ ] Try changing it up a bit, see how else you can play with them (insert chosen strategy here.)
[ ] Just go quiet

 

[Winged One]

[X]5 dogs, arranged such that the adventurers cannot sneak past them.

[X] Try changing it up a bit, see how else you can play with them (Plead with the adventurers not to hurt the other dogs.)

 

[Larekko12]

[X]8 Dogs that wake up when halfway through the room.
[X]A Tripwire Keyed to an Arrow Trap.
[X]A Subtle Pressure Plate Right Behind that wire so as to be activated if you step over the wire with hopping fair distance keyed to an arrow trap.

 

[Vindictus]

[X] Rolling Boulder Challenge

 

[iamnuff]

what's our goal here?

if they leave, we might get more rep, but killing them at this point is almost trivial.

three dogs? really? that's all you could handle?

I do like the way they took apart the spike trap instantly.

shows an amazing amount of compliance for such a pair of idiots.

[X] 10 or so bats, and some arrow traps

 

[ShaperV]

I suggest we let Vic go, with the story about the entrance opened by blood. He's exactly the type who'll keep coming back with possible heirs to test...

 

[Fellgar]

I suggest we let Vic go, with the story about the entrance opened by blood. He's exactly the type who'll keep coming back with possible heirs to test...

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Seconded. We don't even have to corrupt them into doing it either.

 

[Jiven]

I agree.

 

[megrisvernin]

Fourthed.

 

[Darkened]

I suggest we let Vic go, with the story about the entrance opened by blood. He's exactly the type who'll keep coming back with possible heirs to test...

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And how precisely do you plan to let just him go? Keeping in mind you have relatively little control over how things proceed once they're built for the moment.

I think what you're suggesting is "No extra traps" in the second/third room, but I'd want to be sure before confirming the vote and going ahead on the post. Is that right?

(Not even a flood of wild rabbits?)

 

[Darik29]

You know, warning them about the vicious, horrific beast that defends the final room, and then having a single Snow White rabbit just jump over and scare the living hell out of them, amuses me.

Especially if its a Hell Bunny that rips out throats, but that's unlikely.

Regular old bunny, the big dude decides to keep it as a pet, other dude wants to eat it for dinner once there out, and the Rolling Bolder trap is activated once they open the treasure chest.

Maybe have it so that there's a wall where the door back to room 1 is, trapping the adventurers so that the Rolling Boulder kills them? Or no, replace the main entrance with a wall that the Boulder destroys, so that the thieves need to jump out of the way to survive?

 

[Darkened]

Maybe have it so that there's a wall where the door back to room 1 is, trapping the adventurers so that the Rolling Boulder kills them? Or no, replace the main entrance with a wall that the Boulder destroys, so that the thieves need to jump out of the way to survive?

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Hallway 2 was meant to slope downward from the entrance I believe.

IE: You enter from room 1 and go down, then while upward returning the boulder appears in front of you and naturally rolls downwards, chasing you back toward room 3, where you'd probably get sealed in by boulder if you have no means to move/break it and die an agonizing/miserable death of dehydration alone in the dark.

At least, that's what I assumed people meant.