Calimshan Campagin: The Paladin's Tomb

[Rekka360]

I DM a Forgotten Realms campaign taking place in the desert Empire of Calimshan, and my players are being hounded by a cabal of liches and their network of spies and agents(the Twisted Rune).

They just found a map after killing a priest of Orcus (demon prince of the undead) to the Tomb of a Paladin, which supposedly *winkwink* has a powerful artifact to battle undead creatures.

So the tomb is in the desert between the cities of Memnon and Calimport, and I'm trying to figure out what to populate it with. I need some unique traps, one of the PC's is a tiefling rogue and he has, so far, proved to be Superman when it comes to disarming/dealing with traps.

The other things I'm trying to figure out is what kind of monsters to put in the tomb, as it is supposed to be a holy place, the reason the priest of Orcus had the map was because he wanted to destroy the artifact as it was obviously a threat to him as a leader of undead things. I was kind of leaning towards making it a monster free dungeon, but I think I still want to have at least one big encounter, aside from one particularly tough encounter the PC's have rocked combat pretty well, and I think they need a wake up call, I don't need to kill them, but I want to bloody them pretty badly.

Trap ideas? Monster ideas?

 

[renau1g]

Welcome to the site. Personally I'd avoid having it monster free as the non-rogue players will be bored... they need something to do. An idea is to have the traps trigger during an encounter, perhaps some sort of summoning device that spews out creatures to protect the tomb. The rogue must work to disable it while the others cover him, providing aid when they can. Maybe it pumps out 1 standard creature every other round and a minion on the odd rounds? Something like that.

Monsters will need to be some sort of immortal creatures, either golems (or other constructs) or perhaps angelic creatures that will not allow any past. Without knowing the levels of the PC's though it's hard to suggest specifics. You probably don't want to go with undead guards though so it kind of limits your choices.

 

[Prism]

which supposedly *winkwink* has a powerful artifact to battle undead creatures.

You reminded me with that of a campaign where I spent many months and adventures seeking out a powerful sword to help defeat a big bad monster - only to discover when eventually in combat with it that the sword was cursed to make it almost impossible to hit the monster. It had been feeding the party rumours the whole time to influence us to find the sword - without it we would have been fine

Anyway, I always liked the look of this egyptian styled tomb but never ran it http://www.necromancergames.com/pdf/Sets_Daughters.pdf

 

[D'karr]

Have the tomb be located in or near an extradimensional rift that pulls creatures from the Far Realm into it.

 

[ppaladin123]

I'd go with desert-dwelling animals (giant snakes, scorpions, jackals, etc.) in the upper areas of the tomb. The first set of wards/gates may have been breached or may have crumbled over time. Thus the first couple may be used be the local fauna for shelter.

Once the players progress deep enough, they can reach a sealed/gated area that has so far been untouched. Beyond this point they might encounter constructs (golems, animate statues of paladins/gods) and holy spirits (wisps, minor angelic beings). The spirit of the paladin herself might appear and test the players before willing parting with her weapon.

Alternatively the party could arrive to find that the wards have already been breached by agents of the liches. They might encounter cultists, undead grunts, etc. and could be forced to race them to the prize. In this scenario you can certainly leave in the constructs/wisp/etc. They would attempt to stymie both parties. You could probably create some interesting three-way battles...maybe have the players assaulted from both sides or have the tomb guardians interrupt a battle between the party and bad guys and start indiscriminately attacking both.

 

[Derulbaskul]

A lawful good paladin in Calimshan is likely to have worshipped Anachtyr, a Calishite deity later absorbed into Tyr. Tyr was slain at the beginning of the Spellplague so, if you're playing in the canon version of FR4E, he's dead which is rather handy if you want to corrupt his tomb.

The rest of my post is based on the paladin being a follower of Tyr and Tyr being dead.

One of Tyr's preferred manifestations as noted in Faiths & Avatars is the sound of a gong. He is also noted for his blindness and for missing a hand. I would suggest that any traps you choose to incorporate include thunder damage from the sound of a gong, radiant damage and blindness (save ends) from blinding light and traps for "wayward hands" (while this can't be precisely modelled in 4E, perhaps a weakness effect with a penalty to hit to reflect the damage to the hand).

Hmmm, as I read the section in Faiths & Avatars I am wondering whether at least one trap should require the party to be blind (temporarily) before they can pass a certain wards? There would need to be clues of course, preferably something tied to Tyr's dogma.

The fact that Tyr is dead might also suggest that many of his followers are now restless in death. I would have a few mummified paladins rise up if their tombs are defiled by the party!

I also agree about including desert creatures. As it is set in Calimshan I think it's probably obligatory to include at least one encounter with a genie: I like the idea that the Twisted Rune summoned a band of dao (earth genies) to drag the tomb further beneath the earth. That also allows you to have some other encounters on the way down.

Oh, and include an undead dao as one of your monster encounters. Perhaps he can be the "boss" guardian of the sword that you mentioned.

 

[ashockney]

I love to blend in some "old-school" inspiration to juice up a modern campaign. In this case, I3-I5, the Desert of Desolation Series by Tracy Hickman looks like it would be a perfect fit.

 

[Rekka360]

Thanks for the ideas everyone, I think I've got a good handle on what I need to do now, I'll post the results when I get everything hammered out.

 

[Grymar]

I immediately saw a fun trap where the party is in a sealed room that is filling with sand. Then have some sort of a creature (earth/sand elemental?) attacking them, getting stronger as the sand fills the room while the party has a harder and harder time moving around.

 

[mgbeach]

One of Tyr's preferred manifestations as noted in Faiths & Avatars is the sound of a gong. He is also noted for his blindness and for missing a hand. I would suggest that any traps you choose to incorporate include thunder damage from the sound of a gong, radiant damage and blindness (save ends) from blinding light and traps for "wayward hands" (while this can't be precisely modelled in 4E, perhaps a weakness effect with a penalty to hit to reflect the damage to the hand).

Hmmm, as I read the section in Faiths & Avatars I am wondering whether at least one trap should require the party to be blind (temporarily) before they can pass a certain wards? There would need to be clues of course, preferably something tied to Tyr's dogma.

The fact that Tyr is dead might also suggest that many of his followers are now restless in death. I would have a few mummified paladins rise up if their tombs are defiled by the party!

I also agree about including desert creatures. As it is set in Calimshan I think it's probably obligatory to include at least one encounter with a genie: I like the idea that the Twisted Rune summoned a band of dao (earth genies) to drag the tomb further beneath the earth. That also allows you to have some other encounters on the way down.

Oh, and include an undead dao as one of your monster encounters. Perhaps he can be the "boss" guardian of the sword that you mentioned.

I love the idea of the players having to maybe blindfold themselves to go through a particular room (maybe there is an intense magical light in there that would cause damage constantly if they didn't)... .and maybe to further pay homage to Tyr, players could take attack penalties on any two-handed weapons used in a certain area of the temple. Lots of fun options!