Anyone have any experience/suggestions for running a Sea Cave/Cavern dungeon? I’ve already got a lot of the details worked out for this place, but I feel like it’s missing some things.
First off, the entrance to this cave system is located beneath a temple that was erected within the last decade by a visiting religious order in search of a place to put down roots in this area. Going for a Lovecraft inspired approach with the coastal town the PCs are currently occupying, I’ve placed an unnatural horror at the bottom of this cave system in the form of this gargantuan oyster creature that’s been infected by an evil parasite that’s corrupted it. The combination of this parasite/oyster has resulted in a sort of psychic/magical infection on the inhabitants of this temple and it’s turned them all into these nightmarish fish men that have turned from their goddess and now worship the oyster.The corrupted oyster has been sending fish men to the town to abduct townsfolk, some of which are intended to be food, others to bolster their numbers. In addition to amassing an army of fish men, the oyster creature naturally has the ability to locally control the seas and as a result has set up this sort of Ravenloft-esque fog that’s encased the entire bay area near the town which has resulted in a complete stop of the fishing and import/export that the town was once known for as ships either don’t make it in to begin with or get turned around and sent back to the harbor.
So yeah, got a place, got a motivation for the PCs to go here, got a boss, got some inhabitants (could probably use more), but I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions for anything that’ll help this small-ish dungeon pop. Maybe some custom sanity moves, maybe some traps, maybe some interesting encounter ideas, maybe a way to make fighting a giant oyster interesting.
Maybe grab the Drowning and Mind Control moves from here? Or use something like them?
docs.google.com – Drowning and Falling: Custom Moves for DW
You might also get some value out of Randy M’s maps (can’t + him in for some reason). Big on caves and water!
plus.google.com – Randy M
Jeremy Strandberg Thanks for both of these suggestions! I think they’re going to help a lot!
Really great drowning move, very poetic with the “holding your breath!” I will definitely use these.
Maybe include a front timer. The tides are coming in and if the party doesn’t hurry then thet will be trapped in there.
Robert Doe I had actually considered having some puzzles involving putting them in water to bypass certain gates. Might be neat if opening doors somehow raises water levels in this tunnel.
Brandon Fincher you could do that and have a tide counter, for sure.
Maybe there are a couple sealed doors, sealed well enough to keep out the tide. If they’re closed when the tide gets to that “level”, then the tide is +1 level higher throughout the rest of the dungeon.
If you open the doors, the tide drops (pretty quickly) by 1 level throughout the rest of the dungeon.
Also, “When you open the sealed doors and the tide rushes in on you, roll +???…”
Jeremy Strandberg I love it!
/sub