Abandoned Temple Dungeon?

the players have finally gotten off their asses to make their way to the first "Dungeon" of my campaign.

theyre going to the temple located deep within the mountains, once a terrible event happened here and now its abandoned. aside from he demons that resulted from the event (the event? I'm not entirely sure, but it caused demons)

within they will be fighting of course the demons that have persisted here, but also for some reason another faction of creatures is tearing the place apart looking for something (the same thing theyre here for)

theres no tl;dr sorry, I'm looking for help.

I'm trying to think of more stuff to throw in here, so far I've got
- having to keep from alerting the troops of roaming monsters.
- Find the key to open a majority of the doors in here without breaking them down or lockpicking them
- pits of this black goop that will potentially attack them cause demons whatever
- terrain and cover actively falling apart
- couple hard to kill enemies that use debilitating effects
- a roadblock where they have to restore the holy symbol to the statues in the room for the door to open
- and the final guardian being the priest that was at the center of this outbreak

thats about all i got, i was trying tot think of non shabby problems to throw at them, in terms of traps. but i can't reasonably think about why there might be traps the players would have to avoid? the demons wouldn't set them up, the new faction hasn't been there long enough. maybe the priests set them before they were all killed by the demons?

and uh, anyone got anything they wanna add? I'm sure some people have done churches/monasteries before?

and thats about it.

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oh fuck how could i miss why i originally came here. what i get for taking a shower mid post.

I wanted to reward the players with various holy relics as they progress through the dungeon, but I'm having so much trouble thinking of relics to add on top of their gear instead of replacing their gear.

as opposition, i was thinking about having a "friendly" demon offer them stuff as a reward for giving him the artifacts instead.

side notes
- heres the map i found and plan on re configuring to work for my needs.
- secondly, i have never run something with this much damage so i was considering having "Healing Zones" since the system doesnt incorporate rests like D&D, i was hoping to get your guys thoughts on that.

I've been shitting up some random magic artifacts, I'm still here if anyones interested?

- Sword that can convert 1/2 the damage its dealt into healing
- Shield shaped like a cross that can guard multiple allies
- Amulet that lets you recover from one killing blow essentially
- Collar and crown, anyone wearing the collar is controlled by the wearer of the crown
- Holy hand grenade, a grenade with good holy damage, limited uses.
- Holy Knives of the Father, neat little knives that mark a foe and make them take damage for 1dX turns
- Crusaders Garb, reduces all evil damage, but not very effective against non evil shit
- earrings of the angel, allows you short term flight
- Healing Draught, a chalice with a healing liquid in it, but its only got enough sips for 3 uses.

unfortunately I'm still having trouble with more add ons, Its easy to make equipment that replaces.

For starters your map is basically a series of hallways with 12 rooms. Think about how the temple actually functioned when things were normal and modify the map accordingly. I'd personally have a few buildings with several interior rooms linked by walkways.

This, however I don't think all is lost.

Perhaps the temple is one that values individual worship. Perhaps the most central chambers are where the demons first showed up and there are signs of blockage to funnel the monsters. While that part of the plan worked, they were eventually overwhelmed.

The map could just be what is remaining, while there may have been more rooms and stuff they may have decayed or been destroyed

Heres the map in Deepnight! because lemme shill this app

Second group is made up of dwarves. They just want to sell the artifact (or take it apart to make an artifact of their own, which is really dangerous).

They've been digging through the dungeon instead of going through it properly, leaving most traps intact. Their tunneling may have "created" a few traps as well (e.g. a room begins to collapse and the party has to run out of there).

somebody say dwurfs?

we got ya demons here, what kinda demons we want up in here? we want shadowy evil looking fuckers or honored flamed fuckers?

...

...

*horned

so are Demons shadowy, and Devils flamey?

Still on the docket

- What reason would there be for traps in a monastery (however some of the statues could be traps, make em shoot darts n shit)
- Thoughts on the healing stuff, should it be in item form? or a rest zone?
- Holy Relics? what are thooooose? but no seriously, what other artifacts we got?

There might be traps that the original priest set to discourage his own clergymen from catching on to his plans. I agree with your idea of other clergymen setting traps to defend themselves from the outbreak, too - that sounds like it could work.

Not sure about healing. Both of your ideas sound fine imo. The big hurdle for a rest zone would be figuring out why it exists in the first place, though.

In terms of artifacts, maybe a set of prayer beads with different spell charges imbued in the individual beads? Like a wand with a bunch of different single-use spells.

Otherwise, protection-against-evil incense, or maybe a holy symbol that works more effectively when used against enemies of the same alignment as the user.

Their are a few traps, more or less non-lethal, located in rooms that held items of value to stop thieves. However, your players will find several crude but lethal traps scattered ad hoc around the temple where the inhabitants tried to set up choke points and defensive positions.

The "rest zone" is actually an old greenhouse/garden. There your players will find plenty of herbs and plants used in the creation of potions, and maybe even a few potions, left over from the temple's better days.

In real life relics are usually body parts or personal items belonging to saints. Make some saints, think about what they're the patron saint of, and then think of some non-equipment items that grant buffs/abilities/effects that relate to the saint's patronage. For example, a bone shard belonging to the patron saint of travelers grants its holder a decreased chance of triggering traps. Don't tell your players what they do, only give the saint, their patronage, and let your players try to figure it out. Don't forget, many relics were actually fakes.

Bump

Here's a blog post with some unusual holy relics.

goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/12/silent-bell-of-st-dorbaine-and-d12.html

thanks, i just found that article only to come back here and see it posted hours ago. i should check here more.

>Here's what I got:
An incubus/sucubus infiltrated a Church of [The Broken God/Omnissiah/Gond/The Holy Wagonmaker/Celestial Clockmaker]. The head clergyman was corrupted by the demon and he lead his fellows in disassembling the holy icon-mechanisms of his order and using the parts to build a blasphemy engine. The engine tears open a shifting portal to various realms within the Abyss, specifically ones associated with Orcus and Jubilex. It opens to a new Abyssal realm every 2d6 days and remains open for 1d20 hours before shutting.
The locked chambers aren't actually locked, the holy mechanisms that doubled as locks have been partially disassembled. Fortunately repairing them is a sacred rite of communion and has been illustrated on tapestries hanging from the walls.

>Continuing:
The black Ooze is the industrial fluids (cursed oil, grease from victims, demonic bodily fluids) used by the blasphemy engine. Infused with Abyssal energy, the black ooze seeks to destroy all but can be turned by a cleric.
>Alternative:
As the priests fell further into corruption they turned on each other. They used their ingenuity to create fiendish traps to assassinate or counter assaults by their rivals.
Instead of maces and clubs, clerics of the holy mechanical order used blessed Tonfas because IRL tonfas were spare parts of a millstone granary. Attaching a prayer wheel to the holy weapon turns it into a key for one of the doors(?)
Another holy weapon could be a set of arrows that a Fletcher made from feathers that angel took from their own wings. The arrows automatically hit any fiends when fired from any bow weapon.

Neat OP. I too played Dark Souls 3

i have not, explain? is a cursed demon temple in dark souls?

my players first dungeon was a cargo ship in a storm in the north Atlantic in Feburary. What had started as a rescue mission turned into stopping a high seas robbery being committed by a team of operators.

session went well