Specificall, this is in regards to Rappan Athuk. The first level, actually.
Level One has a creature called “The Dung Monster”. It’s a seriously mutated Mimic. It’s also essentially unkillable. The short versin is that it’s got SR50, Regeneration5, DR 25/+5 (yes, I know I’m mixing 3.5 and 3.0), and on and on.
It’s really something that’s not meant to be beaten - just escaped from. After three encounters with no casualties and several grabbed and dissolved magic weapons they finally decided to give up on it and just keep away.
So, that’s where things were, and everyone decides to move on and work on Level Two.
Well…
One of my players sends out an email today saying that he’s figured out how to kill it. There was a barbarian on Level Two that had three jars filled with Green Slime. One was used against them (unsuccessfully) in a fight, and they’ve figured out what the other two are filled with.
I honestly can’t think of anything to keep this from working.
So, can anyone come up with a reason why this wouldn’t work? It’s not a huge deal, but I’m a bit shocked that they’ve actually come up with a way to kill the unkillable beast…
Can’t help, but I’d be interested in hearing an explanation as to what it is about the jars of green slime which would make them somehow effective in killing this uber-monster of which you speak.
If one of the players has found a way to kill the unkillable, then that player (and the party) get lots of experience. I think it’s pretty much as simple as that.
Was it central to your story that the monster not be killed? If so, you don’t necessarily have to change your whole story. Just have the actions the players came up with have an effect that doesn’t actually lead to the monster’s demise for some ad hoc reason, but which still provides, at least in the short term, all the effects of the monster’s would-be death–the players get whatever rewards would have been reaped and the monster is incapacitated somehow.
A little creativity should fix it up, I think.
If the monster holds an important item they weren’t supposed to have yet, then I guess I’m not sure what to say. It doesn’t feel unsoluble, though.
Well, Green Slime (operating off memory from a month ago when some fool got himself sloshed by it) basically eats 1d6 Con per round. Assuming they tag it with both jars that’s looking at 2d6 Con per round. The beast has 23ish Con, so we’re looking at it dead in slightly over three rounds.
I can’t remember how bad Slime was in the olden days (it’s been a while, but I remember it being baaaad), but it’s even nastier now.
Roleplayer here. Haven’t had much experience in 3.5, but if the solution is creative, ingenious, and doesn’t break the game, I say you just go ahead and let them try the Mysterious Jars. (You might want to work out the actual damage points ahead of time just to make sure it works, though.)
I can’t see anything in the description of either Mimics or Green Slime that would say it wouldn’t work. Green Slime is not magical (so no SR), doesn’t deal HP damage (thus no DR or Regeneration), and isn’t acidic (so the Mimic’s acid immunity doesn’t apply).
If there is anything, it should be in the Dung Monster’s description, but you’ve never mentioned anything.
Good for your players.
[Preview - so, the monster was supposed to be immune somehow…it’s up to you whether to rule in a rule to allow that, or keep it by the book, and allow your players to do it. I’d do it by the book, personally.]
Fact of the matter is, they surprised the hell out of me on it. Errata or not, I think they deserve the win for thinking of it. Of course, if they blow their to-hit rolls, well then they’re gonna have to run away again.
So far Dungie has managed to eat two +2 weapons an a Boot of Elvenkind. Seems like a good score for the beast.
I’m always amazed at the SDMB, though. jmizzou turning up that stuff being a perfect example…
If you wanted it to be immune to green slime, you (or the module designer) should have thought of that beforehand, and especially before putting slimes conveniently loaded into jars into the adventure. Your party just outwitted the designer, good for them.
Related annecdote: A friend once told me of a dungeon he DMed. It had a back entrance, which he decided he didn’t want the players to use. Rather than just sealing off that entrance, he parked an upgraded vampire tree there. A vampire tree has leaves that detach, fly off to its victims, drain a little blood, and fly back to the tree to unload. The tree itself is immobile, and the leaves have limited flight range, so it can be avoided without too much difficulty. But this particular tree had longer range than any of the party’s weapons or spells, and it would have been able to kill them before they could close the range. Well, the party’s druid decided he would kill it anyway. He cast Protection from Fire on himself, doused himself in Greek fire, and hugged the tree. Nothing for the DM to do at that point but to congratulate the party, give the druid an experience bonus, and plot revenge for the next adventure.
As a long-standing player and DM, I dislike ‘unkillable’ monsters and other ways of restricting the party.
Why not see what creative ideas your party can come up with?
Why channel them into simply acting out a rigid story the DM has planned?
Some of my most enjoyable moments (both as player + DM) have come from unexpected and improvised passages of play…
I’m with Glee, Dotchan and Chronos on this one.
I’ve always advocated reward where deserved. Let em try it out perhaps weighting the xp heavily towards the guy that came up with the solution. And I don’t believe an unkillable moster should exist until you get into the realms of the gods.
Take a look at the charts for generating random epic weapons. Notice that there is no upper limit to the “plus” you can roll for a randomly-generated epic weapon, if you keep rolling on the charts just right.
Roll yourself a +infinity epic magic sword.
Sell the sword. Now you have infinity gold pieces.
Use these infinity gold pieces to buy any number of +infinity weapons. You’ll never run out of money, because infinities don’t subtract like finite numbers do.
Note also that the random epic magic item tables also do not place an upper limit on the “plus” you can roll for randomly-generated epic armor or shields, which means that +infinity armor and +infinity shields are also allowed. Buy everybody in your party a +infinity animated shield, so that they’ll still be considered not to be carrying anything in their shield hand.
Let’s see how well the Dung Monster stands up to a blow from a +infinity sword!