Castle Whiterock: The Quest Continues, Volume Three

Buffing the Bleak Theater

Most of The Immense Cavern (level 9 of Castle Whiterock) can be played as is. You've got your troll squad with delusions of grandeur, the ettin, the mushroom forest, some drunk teenage stone giants... all of these can be played out with minimal hassle. 

The final room, though, is problematic, as I've mentioned before. Unless the party is caught totally unawares, without protection from fire, they will probably survive it. It's even possible they make it through taking only minimal damage. Indeed, even Energy Resistance (Fire) 10 turns the entire affair into a tedious exercise. So let's give it some snap! 

The Trapped Route to the Bleak Theater

So what do we have here? A password that gets you through the trap, disabling it for 5 minutes. A dead roper for color and continuity. And a big-ass fire trap. While 60d6 sounds like a lot, it's spread out over 15 rounds, at 4d6 per round. Also, there's a save, albeit a DC22 Reflex save. (why do you get a save against a cloud you are entirely engulfed in? No good reason!)

There's even a chance to avoid it entirely, at least for cautious players with a high Reflex bonus. If you are lingering near one of the doors when the trap is triggered, you can slip outside. Of course, that will split the party, which brings its own hazards. The sliding doors are tough (120hp, hardness 8) but blasting your way through or using stone shape is another option. 

Detection or Avoidance

Now it is likely the party will be looking for trouble in this place as it is a choke point and a fairly obvious transition to a deeper level of the dungeon. So Find Traps may be in effect or the rogue may actually scout ahead looking for traps, but the detection and disable DC is 33! So let's just assume that the rogue doesn't find it, or can't defuse it. Likewise, a 7th level caster is not likely to be able to Dispel the magical portion of the trap, as the DC to overcome it is 26, meaning they would have to roll a 19 or 20 to bring the spell down. 

Once Triggered

Now let's look at the damage. Over 15 rounds you are looking at 210hp, assuming average damage per round (14 hp) and you fail every Reflex save. But over the course of 15 rounds, you're likely to make at least one of those saves even if your Reflex bonus is only +3 or so, so let's call it 200hp. Energy Resistance 10 drops that total to 50 points; bad, but not generally lethal at 7th level. 

Assume your party is going to be casting spells during this time. Concentration checks against continual damage will be 18+ half the damage dealt, or 25 on average. And again, if Energy resistance is involved, that will probably be reduced to a 20. Not terribly difficult, given that the average Concentration check bonus in this group is +12. 

That means the party wizard or cleric will probably be able to get debuffs off. Either communal energy resistance or at least a few Channel Energies to keep people from hurting too bad; in fact a 7th level cleric's channel healing is 4d6, the same as the DPS of the trap. 

So while the cleric is healing or casting prayer for the party-wide +1 buff to Reflex saves and keeping people standing, what are the other folks doing? Standing around on fire, mostly. The wizard might have some utility spells to fire off that may help, but the fighters and rogues have time to burn (nyuk nyuk nyuk!), so this becomes an exercise in waiting. BORING. 

Snorefest or Gorefest

So let's introduce some more threats.

Let's add this guy: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npcs-cr-7/wrath-priest-half-orc-cleric-8/

He's got a nice set of combat buffs, energy resistance and, once fully prepped, will accomplish two goals: A) giving the fighters something to do and, B) force the party healer to make decisions every round (heal the party or heal the fighters or deal with the threat directly), keeping things interesting. 

But even this might not be enough to stress the group. So I'm adding another potential threat:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npcs-cr-6/bloodfire-sorcerer-half-orc-sorcerer-7/

Now we have a real fight on our hands. A small NPC party of 2 casters, buffing each other, attacking the party while they are on their heels, all while the room erupts in fire around them. Beautiful!

Conclusion

This setup gives me three options: the base encounter as written; a medium nasty fire trap in case the party is already taxed, and two upgrade positions in case the encounter goes to easily or they somehow manage to disarm/avoid the trap. It might seem mean, but in the end I actually hope this will deter any foolishness on the part of the group and make them take the Thane and his minions very seriously!

Also, the party has managed to get to this level with very little in the way of magic (they've been avoiding high risk-reward encounters like the plague), and the two NPCs will at least provide them with a number of basic magical equipment they will need later on.