Welcome to part 3, the belated sequel.
PART THE FIRST - Making Runes
PART THE SECOND - Rune Mechanics
PART THE THIRD - Tutorial Rune Dungeo
Why use this dungeon?
This dungeon is meant to slowly introduce your players to the concept of runes and how to use them.
Of
course they'll try to exploit runes for fun and
profit, but if they prominently display their runic might then the
knowledge will spread and they could be facing a widespread magical
Renaissance!
It is like I am James Raggi except that if the PCs fuck up everybody else in the world gets a better standard of living.
If you don't want runes to be used in the rest of your world, then this can even act as a gimmicky rune gimmick dungeon.
It's a fairly low level dungeon but if I had to ballpark it it'd be
intended for groups level 2-4.
What is going on with this dungeon?
A
long, long time ago there was a war between Wizards and Rune Mages. Rune Magic is dangerous since even the common man can use it, and magic should stay in the hands of the learned! To
stop it from ever being used against wizardkind again they
locked the essence of rune magic into a giant crystal in a dungeon,
created clay homunculi to protect it, and began a brutal decades-long
purge of anybody and anything that still knew about the runes.
A great magical being of uncertain
motives is locked within the crystal. It is this being which powers
the runes and is in turn somehow sustained by them. It is this being who the wizards sealed in the dungeon all those years
ago. It doesn't like wizards much for some reason.
An
arbitrarily long time later the Runic Wars are a half-remembered tale of how wizards are evil and how you should kill all the wizards you meet in case they try to start a war again. A small town in some backwater burg has had some weird
stuff start
happening. These old menhirs and giant henges which everyone thought
were proof positive of ancient aliens have started glowing with strange
runes and symbols. They are magical warning signs set by the ancient
wizards, warning signs that few recognise and none realise the true
significance of!
Adventure Hooks!
-
Reports of crazy menhir shit have reached the ears of knowledgeable yet
rebellious
socialist wizards who believe magic should be for everyone. They hire a
gang of 4 to 8 hoodlums to destroy the crystal and release Rune Magic
into the world. They want first dibs on anything you learn about how
they work so that they can turn a tidy profit on an initial range of
self-heating cookware.
- An ancient wizard sees the signs and
sends a gang of 4 to 8 hoodlums to investigate the situation and, if
possible, stop the crystal from being broken. He can't do it himself
because he's "busy". This is wizard's cant for "scrying and
masturbating".
- A routine Wipe Out Arbitrary Number of Local
Biped Population quest gets interesting when it is discovered that the
leader's cave is the entrance hall of this rune dungeon. Luckily 4 to 8
hoodlums are here to help!
- A gang of 4 to 8 hoodlums go off the
map and you need a module fast, figuring they'll be too busy working out
how runes work to realise that you forgot all your notes you slap down
this bad boy.
- I am bad at adventure hooks.
The Map!
I
actually lost the original (dodgy) map and half the room descriptions
in between running this and now, probably because I am dumb.
Fun
history: This was the first dungeon I ever made by myself and it was a
linear 4e dungeon. Before I ran it I swiftly shoehorned it into another
map and gave it some loopz.
 |
| Also available in pdf because I scanned it at work! |
I often have a hell of a time trying to find a room number on a map so I
add little tails to them so I can see which way I have to look to find
the next room on the key.
Especially important since I numbered this dungeon haphazardly like a rube.
Special Things in this Dungeon!
Runes are either powered or unpowered and are better described in the previous rune sections.
Runes
which are already powered can be switched off by touching them and sort
of "pulling". Doing this gives you the knowledge required to "push"
energy into a rune.
Breaking
a powered rune turns it off immediately. In the case of a Take rune
that has absorbed a lot of stuff (like the Take Light flashbang in room
2), breaking it means it releases everything in one go.
Skeleformers are
these black obelisks with an eye carved on them. They are always tied
to a single fairly shitty unarmed skeleton which stands in front of them
and attacks people, if the skeleton is killed all its bits get sucked
back to the obelisk and immediately rebuilt.
If you can prevent a bit of a skeleton from rejoining the whole you're safe.
In
darkness the eye is open and the obelisk functions normally. If exposed
to light the eye closes and and the obelisk goes inert.
The
skeletons try to grab light sources and blow them out but they have no
lungs so it's a futile gesture. If they're smart they grab your torch
then jump off a bridge so you can't get it back.
Clay Homunculi are the main denizens of this dungeon, they rarely if ever leave their lair in the western side of the dungeon.
They come in a variety of fun flavours:
Regular Clay Dudes fat, blobby and humanoid. They have lumpy fists and try to force their blobby arm down your
throat to suffocate you, then feed you to the Clay God to make more clay dudes.
Ranged Clay Dudes
grab chunks of themselves and chuck them at you. This damages them, but
the living clay actively tries to fuck you over by getting in your
eyes, sticking you to the floor, or whatever.
Clay Mage Dudes
are rake-thin and have tentacley arms rather than the usual chunky clay
fists. They also have long thin stone staffs. Their spells are a couple
of clay-based magic missiles and a sticky clay web which doesn't burn like a normal web spell.
Since they are made out of clay they are very vulnerable to Earth-based runes.
Regular clay dudes and clay mage dudes are 2HD
Ranged clay dudes are 1HD
They are all resistant to bashing damage due to their semiamorphous bodies and can pretend to be blobs of clay on the floor before congealing into their usual blobby man shape.
If hit by a ranged homunculi, see where it got you on this hit location table. Everything takes a full round to scrape off/wriggle out of.
1. Face. Blinding
2. Left arm. Drop what you're holding in that hand and your arm is useless.
3. Right arm. Drop what you're holding in that hand and your arm is useless.
4. Left leg. Way slower.
5. Right leg. Way slower, both legs means you can't move.
6. Gut. Oof! Winded you badly, -2 to attacks and AC this turn.
Multiple shots to the same place give you worse effects. Maybe multiple shots to the face mean you can't breathe or something.
My monster stats were like:
Skeleton - MV 40 AC 12 HD 1 ATK 1 DMG 1d6 SV F1 ML 12
Regular Clay Dude MV 30 AC 14 HD 2 ATK 1 DMG 1d8 SV F2 ML 10
Ranged Clay Dude MV 50 AC 12 HD 1 ATK 1 DMG 1d6 [+ roll on table] SV F1 ML 10
Clay Mage Dude MV 50 AC 12 HD 2 ATK 1 DMG 1d6 SV M2 ML 10
- Spells: Clay magic missile*2, clay web*1
Half a Lich MV 40 AC 12 HD 4 ATK 1 DMG 1d8+3 SV M4 ML 9
- Spells: Breath a Cone of Cold*1, gets lichy spells back if he ever doubles his initial HP.
Lich's skeletons MV 60 AC 14 HD 1 ATK 2 DMG 1d6, 1d6 SV F1 ML 7
Wave elemental MV 20/60 in water AC 12 HD 3 ATK 1 [throw living water to ignore armour
or slam attack for more damage] DMG 1d6
or 1d10 SV F3 ML 10
Fire elemental MV 50 AC 12 HD 1 ATK 2 DMG 1d6/1d6 SV F1 ML 10
Crystal golem MV 30 AC 16 HD 2 ATK 1 DMG 1d8 SV M2 ML 12
Giant crystal golem MV 50 AC 16 HD 4 ATK 1 DMG 1d12 SV M4 ML 12
Great tentacled beastie MV 80 (swims) AC 12 per tentacle HD 10 ATK 1 [per person in the water] DMG 1d6 [but then 1d10/turn while it crushes you] SV F6 ML 7
But you can, of course, adjust them.
Map Key!
 |
| Make Light |
|
1. Skeleformers and rune lights
- This room contains four skeleformers. The westmost ones have bone piles in front of them, the eastmost ones have skeletons in front of them.
- Above each skeleformer is a Make Light rune but only the ones on the west side of the room are lit, this means only one side of the room is illuminated.
- The east door also has one of those light-sensitive eyes like the obelisks.
--
This room is meant to show them the mechanics of the light sensitive
skeleton obelisks and also let them experiment with the runes on the
ceiling if they want. Minor combat supplied for those who can't be
bothered with the runes. They can, of course, just use torches or whatever.
2. Take Runes
 |
| Take Earth |
|
 |
| Take Light |
- Very similar to the previous room except there are great big piles of dirt all over the place, including over where the skeleformers to the east should be. This means only the skeleformers to the west are deactivated. Also all four Make Light runes on the ceiling are on.
- Immediately inside the entrance is a Take Light rune made from dried dirt. It is shadowy in that area as though all the light is being sucked into the rune. This is what is happening and has been happening for a very very long time. Scuffing the rune by accident or by design releases a fuckton of light, blinding anybody nearby for a full ten minutes if they fail a Save vs Paralysis.
- In the centre of the room a powered Take Earth rune has been carved. Turning it off releases a heap more dirt. Turning it back on again absorbs all the dirt in a 10 ft radius, not good enough to reveal the doors behind dirt piles at each of the cardinal points.
-- This room is meant to show them how runes fit together, how runes are made up of an effector Master symbol and an elemental Minor symbol, and which one is which. Also that the Take runes have a 10' radius.
3. Robing Room
- This room is long and well lit by Make Light runes.
There are long white robes hung over drying racks attached to the walls. Pointy wizardy hats hang on hatstands.
-The walls are covered in a tasteful mosaic depicting good guy wizards in pointy hats killing bad guy rune mages.
-In a free-standing cupboard in the middle of the room is a robe covered in yellow mold which, as is traditional, looks like some sort of expensive gold cloth super robe.
4. Secret Room
- In the hall is a statue of a wizard, depicted in the act of breaking a Make Light rune inscribed on a tablet in two. He has a glorious aquiline nose and looks very smug. Pushing said nose opens the secret door into room 4.
- The room contains a single spellbook on a pedestal. It is rather well preserved and contains several regular magic user spells, alongside a spell used to force a bound entity to power a rune (or a number of runes) for you.
5. Washing Room
- Well lit by Make Light runes.
- Water flows through this room from a grille then drains away through a similar grille on the other side. There's a small bridge but it looks like people just used to wash their clothes here.
- The walls are covered in a tasteful mosaic depicting the various evils of the rune mages. Tortures, murders, common people with access to magic, that sort of thing.
6. Half a lich
- It looks like something tunneled through the wall in the southeast, skittered across the floor, then burst through the opposite wall in the northwest.
- Unfortunately it also drilled through some sort of lich who was guarding three treasure chests in here. He's pretty fucked over and seems pretty confused as to why he's here. He also has a few skeletal guards in various stages of disrepair. They have raggedy armour and are faster than the regular skeletons around here though.
- When the party enter the room he mutters something about a riddle before trying to absorb their life juices. He gains hp for every point of damage he deals. If he gets back to maximum hp he becomes fully armed and operational.
- The treasure chests contain coins of various denominations, an opal ring that allows the wearer to power runes from ten foot away without touching them, and a rune-based hoverboard which works fine because the bottom and side runes below are already on.
-- The hoverboard is suppose to get the players thinking of stupid exploity things to build with the runes. The opal ring, of course, makes riding it that much easier. Plus it is the first glimpse at a combo rune which makes them want to try every combination, hoorah!
(Clockwise from top in picture - Take Gravity, Repel Mass, Repel Mass)
7. The Watcher in the Water
- The water here contains a great tentacled beastie who just wants a hug. It doesn't know its own strength though so it tends to hurt people. Only pops out when you disturb the surface of the water.
- Beyond it is an exit, the drilling machine went out of control and drilled through here before zooming through more of the complex.
8. Waiting Room
- Empty save for a few comfy chairs and a fancy coat stand that might be worth a bit of cash.
9. Ruined Room
- That drilling machine careened through a wall and dived into the ground, ruining the tasteful mosaics. Following the tunnel leads you to Room 13 unless the plug in Room 10 was deployed in which case the tunnel is full of water and, potentially, a couple of wave elementals.
 |
| Change Mass |
|
10. Pool Party
- Water flows strongly from west to east. Some watery wave elementals hang around here and attack anyone who enters the water, trying to get in their mouth and nose and drown them.
- Visible beneath the water in the centre of the room is a large disk with a Change Mass rune on it. Powering the rune makes the plug descend and suck all the water down it. Luckily the gap is too small for a person to get sucked in unless they are deformable like a wave elemental or something.
-- Mass is a weird one, somehow my players got it immediately though. They even called it Mass. This room gives them two whole new symbols to play with.
11. Dormitory
- It is some sort of dormitory with beds and stuff in it. Make Light runes next to door and on ceiling but they are unlit. Everything is fairly moldy despite the preservative effects of the dungeon. Trunks at the foot of each bed might hold loot.
 |
| Make Cold |
 |
| Make Heat |
|
12. Kitchen
- A kitchen/dining room! Well lit due to powered Make Light runes. Kitchen contains sturdy ceramic plates, nice cutlery, and heating hobs made from Make Heat runes.
- Stone cups with Make Cold runes on the bottom so you can keep your drinks cold.
-- Giving opposite runes together is good because it makes it really easy for them to work out what each does. Plus, convenient inventions!
13. Chasm
- East side of the room lit by Make Light runes.
- A 30' wide, 200' deep chasm. At the very bottom, if a light source was thrown down and maybe a telescope used, there is the shattered remains of a drilling machine and its [ratman/similar shitty steamtech race] crew. Also visible are the shattered remains of a bridge.
- Skeleformers but the drilling machine took the ones out in the south. Knocking skeletons down hole is valid means of dealing with them.
- Large circle of loose dirt suitable for testing runes out in is available on the floor on the east side.
- On the west side flickering lights can be seen bobbing about. These are in fact dickish fire elementals guarding one entrance to the Homunculus side of the dungeon.
- Beyond this point, the walls are lined with torch sconces with no torches in them.
14. Double Bluff
Four statues of the core four D&D classes all point in pain and fear at a pedestal in the centre of the room. On the pedestal, inside a glass box, is a large and valuable ruby shaped like the final boss crystal.
The walls, floor and pedestal itself are peppered with finger-thickness holes. Every flagstone depresses with a quiet click and causes the sound of machinery to rumble in the walls for a while.
There is no real trap and the crystal has no special powers other than its value.
15. Portal Pits
- Two pits. Fall in one pit and fall out of the other with the same momentum! Continue falling against the ceiling back and forth until you're dead! And your body just won't stop! It'll keep smacking against the ceiling again and again until you fall out sideways or you presumably reach some sort of equilibrium point!
16. Surrounded by Skeletons
 |
| Repel Light |
|
- A Big rock with a Repel Light rune carved onto it is attached to a large, free swinging crane.
- Circular room has walls lined with 14 Skeleformers.
- Light from Repel rune sprays out in a 90 degree arc meaning a guy using the crane thing would only be able to cover a quarter of the room at a time.
- Door to north has an obelisk-type eye on it and opens only when you shine light on it.
-- This room is a cakewalk because they can just use their own light sources, the main reason it's here is to show the 45 degree spray angle of a Repel rune when it's used with an element like Light.
17. Secret Room
- Accessed by pulling torch sconce, wall segment swings open. Inside is a small alchemical lab containing a few potions, some research on how to form and animate Clay Homunculi. Spellbook with a few MU spells along with the clay Magic Missile and the clay Web variants that Clay Mage Dudes can cast.
18. The Tomb of the Clay God
 |
| Make Water |
|
 |
| Make Earth |
|
- Huge vaulted room with enormous, grotesquely fat man-shaped figure in the centre. It is the Clay God. Its skin ripples, and if any PCs or NPCs have died in the dungeon they are getting fed into its skin AS WE SPEAK. Wait long enough and you'll see a new homunculus emerge of a fitting type (stabby guys become regular clay dudes, shooty guys turn into ranged clay dudes, casters become clay mage dudes).
- Four regular clay dudes are standing at each of the big clay dispensing basins at the north and south ends of the room, grabbing goopy loads of clay and slapping them onto the Clay God while a congregation of twelve clay dudes of various types prays to it, led by a clay mage dude on a pulpit.
- They're trying to make it come to life, march out the doors, and bring them to a messy, clay-covered victory in the lands above. They've been trying this for millenia and it hasn't worked but hey there's no harm in trying! To the casual observer it sure looks like a world-destroying ritual that's going to be completed at any moment.
- The clay dispensing basins contain a powered Make Earth rune and a powered Make Water rune.
19. Clay Pillar
- A big pillar of clay in the centre of the room and four blobby clay mounds around the room reveal themselves to be two regular clay dudes, two ranged clay dudes, and a clay mage dude on top of the pillar.
- They are guarding the entrance to the Homunculus part of the dungeon.
20. Fancy Dining Room
- Well lit by Make Light runes.
- Long oak dinner tables covered with fancy silverwear and fine china.
- Attached kitchen area to north contains Heating hobs made with Make Heat runes, stone cups with Make Cold runes at the bottom to keep your drinks cold.
- Box carved with image of a bird on fire contains three strips of phoenix meat, warm and delicious. Incredibly valuable, but eating it brings you back to maximum HP immediately.
21. Fancy Dormitory
- A bunch of nice
four poster beds with various trunks and cupboards containing a variety of
low value and/or mildly magical treasures.
22. Toilet
-
Well lit by Make Light runes.
- Modern amenities! If investigated, all water is supplied via Make Water runes.
 |
| Take Rock |
|
23. Library
- Musty library, shelves contain a variety of historical tomes and information about what actually happened in the Runic Wars, various explanatory texts on how runes work (ie. the players can ask you a few questions on how the runes work mechanically), a bunch of spellbooks and/or scrolls.
 |
| Make Rock |
|
24. Chasm with Bridge
- A 30' wide, 100' deep chasm with water wheel type things on each side of the east door. Above each water wheel is a Make Rock rune and on the floor in front of each is a Take Rock rune.
- Power both runes and rock is generated at the top the sucked towards the rune at the bottom.
- Turning the water wheels makes a bridge extend from east to west.
 |
| Repel Light |
|
25. Weighing Scales
- Four skeleformers against the east wall.
- Upper level to the west accessed by giant stone scales (See diagram below because I am bad at explaining this)
 |
| Take Mass |
|
- Big stone cube at ground level has a powered Repel Light rune keeping the skeleformers deactivated. Take Mass rune on top is unpowered.
- Intended puzzle solution is to activate the Take Mass rune, push now-light cube to one side of the scales, then deactivate it. This hides the Repel Light rune and makes the skeletons come to life oh no.
- Moving the scales opens an obvious secret door in the east wall.
26. Magic Fountain
- A big fountain surrounded by shallow stone bowls.
- The first drink from the fountain increases a random stat by d4 points. Neat!
- Subsequent drinks result in mutations from your favourite mutation table of choice.
-- I used Scrap's and ended up with a player with, to whit, "a mushroom head, cat face, extra-jointed arms, poisonous insectoid limbs
on back, and something mysterious involving a boiling bubbling feeling
in your veins".
27. Twizzler the Wizard
- Some
crazy old fuck is cowering behind a
Hold Portal'd door. He will open the door if he can be convinced that you aren't "those gloopy clay fuckers come back again".
- He has a
history book which says how this powerful rune magic stuff was sealed in a giant crystal in this dungeon, and how if you can destroy the crystal you will be able to use rune magic anywhere in the world!
 |
| Repel Flame |
|
28. Trappy Sorcerer Room
- The door into this room has a grille so you can see inside where a
clay mage dude is blurbling something ritualistic from a spellbook on a podium.
 |
| Repel Mass |
|
-
Two ranged clay dudes sit near
clay dispensing basins at the
western corners of the room which they grab clay out of to throw at you instead of tearing it off their own bodies.
- The area
directly in front of the clay mage dude is a
fire trap created via a
Repel Flame rune. He can activate it as soon as someone steps on it.
In the
eastern corners of the room are
Repel Mass runes which, when activated, throw whatever's in front of them into
spiky walls. A
regular clay dude at the front tries to grab people and drag them into range of the spike traps.
- When the clay mage dude dies the floor where he was standing opens up, leading to a staircase down to area 29.
29. Hub
- A
multilayered barrier of three shields covers a
floating platform in the centre of the room. Below the floating platform can be
seen the gigantic chamber of
Room 35.
- Between the door to Room 30 and the central platform is a
laser platform sitting on a
strange wiggly glyph. This platform can fire a
hideously powerful instant vaporisation beam and is ridden like this thing ->
- It gets
three shots before it runs out of juice, and
every shot makes it slower and less maneuverable until by the third shot it's gone completely inert.
Recharge it by moving it over the
strange wiggly symbol.
- If you fire a beam at the central shields it
removes a layer of
shielding. The shield
flickers back up after a round.
-- The laser platform is required for the final boss fight against the crystal and its shields, Finding one now means they can test out the mechanics.
30. Beds
- Sweet, delicious
beds. Powered
Take Earth rune on doorjamb means clay homunculi couldn't get in here if they tried, and has the side effect of sucking away most of the dirt on your clothes when you walk past.
31. Gravity Trap
-
Long hall with some sort of
railway tracks leading from the door to the far end (actually a
horizontal ladder built into the floor).
-
Laser emitter at far end, if activated, will shoot a beam through a hole above the entrance door and
deactivate a layer of shields.
- Unmarked
Switch A in an upright position near door, unmarked
Switch B in an upright position at other end.
- Flip
Switch A when
Switch B is upright and everyone feels a jolt like the room just fell half an inch. Flip
Switch A when
Switch B is depressed and
gravity switches so that it pulls towards the entrance.
- Flip
Switch B and the laser turns on, but
gravity switches to pull towards the laser end.
- Obviously this is ye olde corridor-which-is-actually-a-pit trap.
32. Crystal Golems
- A
giant 4HD crystalline humanoid sculpture and
two smaller 2HD crystalline humanoid sculptures. They are all
crystal golems. They don't start moving unless they're attacked or somebody tries to fuck with the laser beam.
-
Laser emitter on far wall is firing a
laser beam will, if uninterrupted, pass through a hole above the entrance door and
deactivate a layer of shields. Currently it refracts through the
giant one's head and out the front of its face which is aimed at the floor.
- The
giant one can direct the beams towards one of the
small ones who can redirect the beam further. The beams, obviously, damage normal people but you can make a dex check to dodge one if it's directed at you. Also they can just hit you with their hard crystal fists which really fucking hurts.
- They refract laser platform beams into harmless rainbows.
 |
| Change Mass |
33. Water World
- Large, deep
pool of bubbling water containing
six wave elementals. Vaporised easily by laser platform beams or prudent use of water-based runes.
-
Column in centre of pool from bottom of pool to ceiling.
Laser emitter near ceiling will, if
deactivate a layer of shields.
activated, shoot a laser beam through a hole above the entrance door and
-
Switch visible at very bottom of pool will activate the laser emitter.
Bubbles make swimming down there very difficult.
- Luckily there are a
couple of chests within easy diving distance on ledges. They contain a
Fullmetal Amethyst - a ring which allows the wearer to create a rune of up to three symbols instantly by clapping their hands together and placing them on a flat surface, and
Iron Boots - Clumpy boots with
Change Mass runes on the side to make them much heavier when activated.
34. Light Maze
- A
maze containing
mirrors turned in random directions. The mirrors can all be spun on a vertical axis.
There are also a bunch of webs around the place and the area is thick with flies. There is no explanation for this other than that I first made this map when I was running 4e and/or magic.
- Laser emitter in
south-west corner of the maze is on but being beamed in the wrong direction by reflecting off a mirror. Little x's on map have holes in the floor where you can slot a mirror if you pick one up and put it somewhere else.
- This is a poorly made map and I just noticed I transcribed it from the original wrong so you should probably make your own in a similar theme.
- The
pokey-out triangles in various places are
chests with crystal locks which can only be opened easily by directing a laser beam into them. They contain, variously,
generic coin-based loot,
a fuckload of poisonous spiders and
a fancy hat.
-
Big swarms of spiders roam this area, they tend to live behind the
secret door to the northwest which is actually just a heavily cracked and weakened but of wall. You can get to the surface via a web of micro-tunnels if you're the size of a tarantula or smaller.
- The
secret door to the
south-east contains a heap of replacement mirrors and not much else.
35. The Boss
- When the PCs step onto the
floating platform in
Room 29 it starts to lower, slowly rotating to give them a good look at the
giant, dome-shaped final boss room.
- In the
centre, a
huge cloudy crystal structure protected by
three layers of shields. A
blurry shape is contained within.
- A
squiggly glyph at each of the
cardinal points of the room of the sort which recharge laser platforms.
- An
ominous doorway at each of the
ordinal points.
Lots going on in this boss fight so I'll break it down. But first, the rationale.
-- The central dynamic rests on the guy on the laser platform having to choose between taking down the boss and disintegrating whole lines of clay men. Focus too much on clay men and you'll never get anywhere with the boss, focus too much on the boss and you'll be overwhelmed by the clay men.
- His compatriots have to stem the tide of clay men and hopefully steal another laser platform from one of the randomly spawned laser riders.
- Since you need to zip around the room in order to recharge the laser platform and the boss throws out a lot of AoE attacks, people are going to be running around a lot which should be chaotic.
The Boss creates runes (See
boss attack table). The runes are
formed on one round then go off in the next, so the PCs will have a turn to work out what's coming and/or get out of the firing line.
The Boss has three levels of shields that need to be burned away by laser platform beams and the
shields don't regenerate on their own, unless the boss gets damaged or forms a rock shield.
Homunculi (roll d6 on homunculi table) are
spawned from a random ominous doorway (roll a d4 for each group spawned).
Recharging a laser platform via a squiggly glyph
deactivates the glyph, roll on the
Glyph Reactivation table every round to see if it lights back up. Additionally, a
Make Explosion rune forms on a glyph when it's used which goes off
a round later.
Ordinarily a lit glyph
instantly recharges a laser platform, but they have a chance to reactivate as
a supercharged glyph. Using a supercharged glyph lets you shoot
two beams for the price of one with your next shot.
This is a boss fight and so as one might expect, it goes through 3 stages.
Stage 1: Runes formed and homunculi spawned every second round. When the shields are removed and the crystal itself is hit by a beam, great cracks lance up and down, the shields regenerate, and it moves onto -
Stage 2: Runes formed and homunculi spawned every round. When the shields are removed and the crystal itself is hit by a beam, the shards start crunching in and out on their own, the dark shape within the crystal starts
moving, the shields regenerate, and it moves onto -
Stage 3: Runes formed every round and
homunculi spawned d4 times per round. When the shields are removed and the crystal itself is hit by a beam, the homunculi collapse, the lights go out, the crystal shatters into a thousand shards and...
Whatever you want to put in there is in there. Whatever it is will probably ignore the PCs, blast out of the roof, and go off to do Unspecified Bad Things. On the plus side, they can now use rune magic anywhere in the world! I had 5 elemental dragons inside which flew out to start terrorising far flung lands and set up dragon cults and basically be bad news, luckily some shithead had recently released a bunch of dragon cult posts at the time so I had a lot to work with!
Final Boss Tables!
Boss Attack
See:
This document for the runes used.
1
|
Rock shield around crystal, resists a beam and regenerates all layers of shields.
|
2-3
|
Darkness affects whole room
|
4-6
|
Enlarge Homonculus Minion, double HP and damage
|
7-11
|
Big firey explosion rune formed under feet of the biggest grouping of
enemies
|
12-13
|
Explosion string targets 3 randomly determined enemies
|
14-15
|
Shockwave projected from crystal throws people back in 90 degree arc
|
16-17
|
Lightning beam sweeps in 90 degree arc
|
18-19
|
Single target beam hits all in a line
|
20
|
Bullshit bouncing frost ball bounces between 3 nearby targets, ally
or enemy.
|
Homunculus Spawn (Each group comes from a random ominous doorway)
1-3
|
1d6 Regular Clay Dudes.
|
4-5
|
1d4 Ranged Clay Dudes
|
6
|
Ranged Clay Dude on a Laser Platform!
|
Squiggly Glyph Recharge (roll for each unlit glyph every round)
1-3
|
Stays unlit
|
4-7
|
Relights!
|
8
|
Supercharged!
|
