Back in the saddle!

The Path Through Darkness encounter should appeal to you for a few reasons. First, it's a very simple map to draw. Second, it'll work with any number of critters, whether they're walkers, crawlers, or flyers. Third, it can be rather deadly for a group that isn't willing to take the right precautions. Fourth, it may stretch the legs of various underappreciated skills and specialist characters.

Anyway, here's the map.

 The critter minis are random (but viable) choices. Strong climbers and flyers are especially good choices for this encounter.

Read this to your players as they approach the room:

A cacophany of screeching seems to crescendo as you approach, but it's the smell that worries you—the air has become a heavy miasmic blend of rot and feces that you can taste as it stings your eyes. The room is a small cavern with a narrow, meandering stone walkway of dubious strength reaching from your entrance to an exit along another wall. A roof of centuries-old stalactites stretches for the floor. The ground well below the walkway is covered with great, dark mounds that shudder and writhe. The deafening sound is from a million bats roosting in the stalactites, and the terrible smell is from what must be centuries of their waste, coating everything.

Fun! Naturally, flying, spider-climbing, and teleporting PCs will have an EASY time navigating the path through darkness, but this encounter provides a quadruple-threat for lower-level or more 'traditional' groups with varied abilities, regardless of the edition you're playing or the critters you use.

1. The critters themselves are obviously there to eat the PCs; see my suggestions for a 3.5 edition and 4th edition encounter farther down.

2. The walkway is slick with guano, requiring some care or skill to cross safely. Obviously, fighting on precarious footing risks a terrible plunge (see #4).

3. The bats, if disturbed, will fill every square inch of this chamber for several rounds, blocking sight, impeding movement, and potentially knocking anyone not securely anchored right off the walkway. (The bats filter out through a narrow hole or two in the roof, in case someone asks.) I made this a straight 5% cumulative chance for every round the PCs are present and acting rowdy.

4. The floor of the chamber is not just coated, but filled with guano that reaches as high as you like it—I made mine 10 feet deep, and made it the home of an advanced otyugh that had feasted on rather nutritious guano for years.

The Advanced Otyugh, 3.5E, CR 6ish

Here are the statistics from my advanced otyugh. It's a CR 5 critter, but the additional dangers certainly warrant an extra point or two of rewards.

The mountain of guano and filth shifts and slides off of a disgusting, 12-foot mound of obese flesh with three stumpy legs and a cavernous mouth filled with thorny teeth. Two fleshy clubs covered with sharp barbs and hooks quiver excitedly on the end of tentacles as the beast labors forwards, gasping "Fresh meat! Fresh meat!"

OTYUGH +

Huge Aberration

Hit Dice: 9d8+27 (61 hp)

Initiative: +0

Speed: 15 ft. (3 squares)

Armor Class: 17 (–2 size, -3 dex, +12 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 18

Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+18

Attack: Tentacle +9 melee (1d8+4)

Full Attack: 2 tentacles +9 melee (1d8+4) and bite +3 melee (1d6+2)

Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. (20 ft. with tentacle)

Special Attacks: Constrict 1d8+4, disease, improved grab

Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., scent

Saves: Fort +6, Ref +0, Will +7

Abilities: Str 19, Dex 5, Con 17, Int 5, Wis 12, Cha 6

Skills: Hide +0*, Listen +5, Spot +4

Feats: Toughness, Weapon Focus (tentacle), Ability Focus: (Disease), Improved natural armour

Environment: Underground

Organization: Solitary, pair, or cluster (3–4)

Challenge Rating: 5

Treasure: Standard

Alignment: Neutral

A typical otyugh has a body 8 feet in diameter and weighs about 500 pounds. This version has dimensions approaching 13 feet and weighing a good 4000 pounds. A steady, years-long diet of only partially digested bat guano has made it incredibly fat, heavy, and slow, but it's still a serious threat to anything that drops into its lair.

Otyughs speak Common.

COMBAT

An otyugh attacks living creatures if it feels threatened or if it is hungry; otherwise it is content to remain hidden. Otyughs slash and squeeze opponents with their tentacles, which they also use to drag prey into their mouths.

Constrict (Ex): An otyugh deals automatic tentacle damage with a successful grapple check.

Disease (Ex): Filth fever—bite, Fortitude DC 19, incubation period 1d3 days; damage 1d3 Dex and 1d3 Con. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, an otyugh must hit with a tentacle attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

Skills: *An otyugh has a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks when in its lair, due to its natural coloration.

3.5E Path through Darkness Tactics and Tips

• The advanced otyugh is canny enough to place a bit of bait—some weapons, some armour, an old skeleton with the armour still on—near the surface of the guano. Be sure to mention that the object is shiny—PCs are like raccoons this way. The otyugh will wait until a target presents itself. The guano should provide effective camouflage and protection from attacks without hindering its tentacles.
• A single sorceror with spider climb will make all the slick guano in the game world moot. Be prepared for this, and maybe use different critters that can engage the PCs without them falling into the guano pool (A couple of carrion crawlers clinging to the underside of the walkway make for a fine CR 6 encounter, especially if they creep towards the PCs and only uncover themselves when within striking distance. It could also be particularly cinematic if the bats are disturbed, obscuring sight, and once the PCs can see again they find the crawlers in their faces. :)
• Consider how difficult it would be for a PC in a pile of guano to fight effectively. I would reduce movement speed and hinder their action rolls, depending on the depth.
• Not deadly enough? Toss an insect swarm into the guano. Still no good? Make a prolonged stay breathing the guano fumes cause sickness.
• There's a fair chance that, at some point in this battle, somebody's going to get improved grabbed while spider-climbing on the wall or walkway. By the rules, spiderclimb is an undefeatable spell in terms of forced movement on the surface. Pretty lame, right? In my game we instituted a house rule whereby a creature with a strength matching 15 + the spell's caster level can pull the creature off the surface, and a successful grapple check (countered, of course, by the target) deals strength mod damage to the target as he/she is twisted around by the attacker.

Grells for the Win, 4E, Level 10-11 Encounter, 2500 XP

Grells are are mix of disturbing or silly, but always deadly. The spider was my otyugh.

Critters: 1 Grell, level 7 elite soldier; 1 Grell Philosopher, level 11 elite controller, 6 Grell Gnawbrains, level 9 minions.

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Grell Gnawbrain (silliest name in existence)

level 9 minion; small aberrant magical beast (blind), XP 100

Initiative +3; Senses Perception +10, Blindsight 12

HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.

AC 21; Fortitude 19, Reflex 21, Will 19

Immune gaze

Speed 1 (clumsy), Fly 6 (hover)

Tentacle Grab (Standard; at-will)

+12 melee vs. Reflex; target is grabbed.

Bite (minor; at-will) Poison

Grabbed target only; +12 vs. Fortitude; 4 damage and ongoing 3 damage.

Alignment Evil; Languages Deep Speech

Skills Stealth +14

Str 13 (+5)  Dex 20 (+9)  Wis 12 (+5)

Con 14 (+6)  Int 10 (+4)  Cha 9 (+3)

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4E Path Through Darkness Tactics and Tips

• The grells should stay hidden under the walkways or above in the shadows of the stalactites until they're ready to attack (ideally, when the bats are swarming about since they don't use vision to see). You'll notice that all grells are rather stealthy.
• Be aware that the environment favours your grells heavily, so be ready to award a bit more XP if your PCs aren't all dead.
• Is a particular PC giving you trouble? Have the grell grab them, bite them, stun them, and then move them off the edge of the walkway and drop them to be dealt with later.
• Split the gnawbrains up among the PCs so each is trying to grab hold and bite (it probably won't really pay to focus those little nibbles on single targets).
• Have the philosopher lightning lance any mobile strikers or controllers early and often to keep them blinded.
• Have the grell tentacle rake a target or two before choosing one to tentacle grab onto (don't shy away from one that already has a gnawbrain attached to him) and be sure to use venomous bite on them repeatedly while moving them off the edge of the walkway (escape will only mean they can look forward to a fall).

Phew—that should do it. Apologies for the length, but I hope you have as much fun running this encounter as I have had. If you have any comments, positive or not, please leave 'em!