Area 12, Demented Distraction

I am still playing along with Matt Jackson and his amazing Collaboration Dungeons. In Dungeon #2, I have populated a room with an great trick Statue. Check out the full post on MSJX.com.

12. Demented Distraction.

The long passageway is lit from above, in a soft orange light when viewed from the hallway. As the characters progress down the stairs, the light shifts to a strong blueish white. The light emanates from a long central beam in the ceiling.

The alcoves are not lit at all and have deep shadows. The characters will find searching for traps or secret doors to be very difficult without their own bright light source. Torches and lanterns are insufficient to remove the penalty, but a magical light spell or a magic weapon’s glow will help. Waiting a round for one’s eyes to adjust also is beneficial.

At the far end of the chamber is a titanic statue of a man with eight arms. Each arm holds bowl like mirror. The statue is made of steel, but show signs of distress.

When the characters step off the last stair and on to the floor of the hallway, a bolt of energy will lance out from one of the mirrors striking a finger’s breadth in front the lead character’s foot. Every time the characters step forward, the statue fires.

There is a pattern to the bolts, the top two left hands, the right bottom two hands, the upper right two hands, and then finally, the lower left hands. The statue responds instantly to any motion forwards, and can fire as often as necessary to lash out any and all members of the party. It can detect people that are astral, invisible, out of phase, etc. unerringly.

If a character contrives to place an item between their foot and the bolt, the item will be vaporized without a saving throw. The character will be blown backwards 5 feet and take 1d4 points of damage.

Likewise, firing missiles or spells at the statue causes a bolt to vaporize the missile or in the case of magic, negate the spell. There is no saving throw for this, it is automatic. Once the attack has been dealt with, the statue does not fire on the players unless they move forward again.

Characters can step into the alcoves to avoid fire, which will likely confuse the issue.

Retreating or moving left or right does not receive a response, so long as the person doesn’t advance towards the statue.

There is no way to prevent the statue from firing, no way to reflect, block or deflect the bolts or hide from them. There is no solution to this puzzle. The statue unerringly fires bolts one finger’s breadth IN FRONT an advancing person’s foot.

The statue will stop firing at a character as soon as they advance past the last alcove. Players who figure out the puzzle will find the statue to be quite inscrutable. It is resistant to all attacks of any kind, and ignores any brute force attack made on it. It will also ignore people searching or climbing on it.

However, if someone attempts to vandalize the statue, all eight mirrors will fire on them for 1d4 points each. This requires a normal attack roll and happens 8 times per round. Bolts that miss the vandal will NOT hit or injure other people. It will not stop firing on the vandal until they have been vaporized or they escape up the stairs leading to area 8 or around the corner to area 7. If the character returns, the statue will start firing again. In fact, it will fire on vandal as soon as they enter it’s line of sight.

The statue is unaware of speech and will only attack the people that attempt to harm it. If the party waits 3 rounds after the vandal leaves or dies, the statue will glow bright red for 10 rounds, after which, vandal’s handiwork will be burned away.

Behind the statue is a corpse wearing +2 chainmail, holding a wax crayon in one hand. There is also a Mace of Disruption under the corpse and in it’s Bag of Holding are three potions, to be randomly determined. If the characters are having a rough time of it, there is also map to this point showing the hidden doorways in the alcoves.

Matt Jackson's CollaboDungeon #2

Here we are, round two! I picked room 22, a forested room in a dungeon. Click here to read Matt's full post and see all three maps.

22. The Faerie Queen’s Thicket

Small animals frolic among all the trees. Under the largest tree is a white brocade blanket, upon which sits a elderly woman. On noticing the party, she sings out:

“Come out, come out,
“I am the mistress of scrying.”

As the characters approach her, she issues a warning:

“Come and sit,
“There is a place for all here,
“But don’t drink the water.”

The reference to water refers to room 15. She offers the characters food and drink. Consuming the food and drink of the Faerie Queen will restore 1d6 hit points and remove any curses or poisons. Characters may be reluctant to partake of the Faerie Queen’s provisions, but it is safe.

If asked about other rooms, the Faerie Queen will produce a crystal ball and describe them. The only limitation to scrying is if the characters have not be there, they might not understand. If characters look at the crystal ball, they see nothing but cloudiness.

The woman is reluctant to leave room 22, but the party can convince her to leave if they promise to take her out by the shortest route. If the party deviates from the shortest route, she will teleport back to her seat in room 22.

If they return to her, she will sing:

“This is my home,
“And you have been banished.”

No food or drink will be offered this time, and if the characters consume it, they will die in 24 hours. There will be no pain, only a sudden feeling of certain doom.

If any character takes the crystal ball, the Queen will vanish and that character will take her place.

The Goblin’s Henchmen’s rule is in effect, 300 words, less 1 for fun. This post draws on DMB’s song Don’t Drink the Water.

Matt Jackson's CollaboDungeon... Number 1?

Over on MeWe, Matt Jackson kicked off a Dungeon Collaboration. He posted a map over on his blog, MSJx.org and invited us to pick a room to describe. You can follow the conversation over on mewe with the hashtag #collabodungeon and the results on Matt's blog.

Matt declared a free for all while Goblin’s Henchman through out an idea for 300 word description limit, which I ran with.

I picked area 7. Unlucky number 7.

The 300 word description:

Location Seven. The Twins.

There are two women, twins, in the pit. They are identical in all ways save one. One women wears a lead ring. When they become aware of the characters, they will both shout out for help. When the characters look in the pit, they will hear the following orders:

Twin with the ring: "Kill her! She's a demon!"
Twin without the ring: "Kill her! She's an idiot!"

They are both at the bottom of the pit and represent no threat to the characters in this state. They are both bloodied and bruised from the fall and each has a blacken right eye.

If the party rescues them, they will find out the following information. Twin One, the one with the ring is named Meredith. She entered the dungeon with her friends in search of treasure. She found a gold ring in area 8 and after discerning no purpose to it, put it on. She was pushed by a monster into the pit.

Twin Two, without the ring, was a doppelganger hiding in area 8. To take on Meredith's form, she ambushed her by pushing her into the pit. Unfortunately for the monster, Meredith grabbed it's wrist as she fell and both ended up at the bottom. As the doppelganger took her form, Meredith shouted "Begone!" which the ring of wishes interpreted as a command against the monster. Since the doppelganger was in mid-transformation into Meredith, the ring fixed it in that form before turning to lead. The doppelganger is now an exact copy of Meredith.

The twins have found combat against each to be profoundly lethal, as they mirror each other's moves perfectly, hence the matching black eyes. They will not fight each other. They will join the party to escape the dungeon.

I'll probably make up stats for Meredith someday, but she is presented as rule set agnostic here.

No one said anything about a follow up, but I'd love to see #1, #2, #3...