Sky Lake

If your one of my players bugger off.

So one PC is going to appear through the lake (which is a portal to neighboring planes), the other is that last survivor of a party coming to raid the ruins, and had some means of bypassing the site guardian.

My basic set up is going to be a mirror still lake that reflects the sky so well that it give the same impression as standing on the edge of a cliff, or looking up and the night sky. The lake is enchanted, and I think that one of the obstacles will be a will test to avoid falling in and becoming cold & wet. The lake is encircled by a few remaining standing stones covered in worn magical glyphs… not sure what they do, but they should probably have the potential to do something. There’s some a neck of rocs here, and they will likely attack the party and steal their food or some such. The eggs could be loot if they find the nest and drive off the parent (s). The whole site is guarded by a golem of sorts which won’t disturb them until the party tries to leave. There’s a pack of dire wolves on the mountain side as a last encounter.
There’s the ruins of a small tower, I haven’t decided whats in there yet. The site will of course have some loot. A broken enchanted orrery for one, and I think the bodies of past adventures.

is there a reason that the players would want to go near the lake? Such as the waters are said to reflect the contents of one’s soul so they are trying to collect some of it? Otherwise the obstacle of the lake itself seems little wasted. If you wanted another option maybe putting the tower that they are after in the middle of the lake, along with an old crumbling bridge that they have to cross this way the lake and the bridge together makes it a more challenging encounter.

I do like the idea of the Next of Rocs and that a clever party may have the opportunity to drive them off. It would seem like this could become an ongoing conflict as well as they have to get back to civilization to sell them off. The Rocs attacking or attempting to recover their eggs when they let their guards down.

The broken or neglected standing stones could be stopping something from escaping the water, a possible test to see what is reflected in the pool of water which isn’t above it. Would be a time if you wanted to mix in some cosmic horror that you could easily slip it in. Especially if your magic user is the one to release some unspeakable horror on the world. If not the world maybe just the region. It would also help justify the golem and why it is trying to keep people from leaving, it is programmed to keep that thing from spreading.

I didn’t see a question but I was venturing a guess that you were spitballing some ideas so there is my 2 cents worth.