Even though we’ve spotlighted some of the individual rooms on the second floor of the Paldemar’s Tower of Mysteries inside D&D’s Thunderspire Labyrinth, we decided to seize the day by taking a step back and showing you how the entire level came together. Ben thinks there are some hidden details and worthy artistic licenses worth sharing in this 4E module.

Teleport Runes
These floor ruins move the party from level to level. WotC’s Dungeon Tiles give you a myriad of ready-to-use options. Ben uses black primed foam board and wood combo for the base so that the tile is flush with the rest of the Hirst Arts’ cracked floors. Dwarven Forge Red Pillars surround the corners of each teleport square for a finishing effect.

The Hallways
Ben just couldn’t seem to get his arms around the original level’s hallway configuration. Knowing that very little fighting would probably occur in the corridors, he just did three simple hallways to accommodate his materials and game table size.

The Lab
Even though Ben already made a video on this particular room, there’s still some fun postgame play details to share with y’all. It’s kinda wild how the morphed since that first vid was shot.

Ben changed the Infernal machine’s original function to be more of an army building device. During actual combat, he decided that all its floating parts would slowly fuse together. Every round meant another successfully connected Bronze Warder body part inside the tank. If combat dragged on too long, there would be an additional monster joining the fray…and nobody wanted another AC 25, 168 HPs on the board. Even after the tank was destroyed, the party made strength checks and pulled some of the large forged parts out of the room so nothing could accidentally connect (clever).

Monsters
A big DM pet peeve of Ben’s is continuously making the players fight the same core group of monsters from previous encounters…snooze city. Thankfully, he remembered an earlier scenario from a Thunderspire module add-on (pg. 24) that involved some Drow emissaries in bar brawl (which ended up going horribly wrong). He decided to build off that previous encounter and finally reveal to the group that the Drow made a secret alliance with Paldemar.

The Library
Ben started with the wizard’s library Dungeon Tile from Arcane Towers which totally worked but then he decided he had enough bookcases/items from eBay accessory builder, JAHecker and tables from Dwarven Forge to make the 3D-ness work here.

Summoning Chamber
Ben already went through this room’s build paces on the blog last week but one item of note is the module never called out the Imp’s saving throw. So, we set it ourselves by calling for an Arcana check (DC 19).

Holding Cell
An empty holding cell? Where’s the fun in that? Ben decided to use this room to better tie everything in from the lab’s Infernal Machine. He put in a big ol’ connecting pipe and some Bacta Tanks from the Star Wars Imperial Entanglements minis set.

Each tank contained a small, mutating microorganism that one day would populate those homegrown Bronze Warder soldiers from Paldemar’s lab. If a character entered this steamy, wet room (DC 18 Athletics’ check or fall on the floor), the creatures inside the tanks would go bonkers and start repeatedly slamming against the glass. After 4 rounds, the glass would break and the toxic liquid would hurt the party (think big ol’ acid style splash (burst 4, 3d10+8 damage). It would also set off an immediate alarm to the Drow guards in the lab.

So, all in all – not a bad little dungeon level for the group to enjoy. The evil Paldemar draws near!

Questions to Ponder: As a DM, how would you tackle this module’s level and make it your own? Do you have a favorite room here? What other monsters might have fit these encounters?

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