Dungeon adventures to lead up to Exp. to the Demonweb Pits

[primemover003]

Even though I'll be going back through my pile of dungeons to see which adventures I wanna run or mine, which adventures do you think would be fitting for a group to run through in a campaign preceeding XDP??? Adventures that could conceivably take place on the Planes or connect to them would help as my players will start at 5th and will be experienced planewalkers (this gives me time to read the superadventure and prep/tweak it).

I know I wanna try to adapt the adventure with the aranae (awesome cover) and I'll think of the Harrowing after the events of XDP...

[Lilith]

Search for "The Harrowing." Very cool adventure - may need some tweaks as it's 3.0, but overall it's very nice. :)

[Great Green God]

From what I hear the second to last chapter of the Savage Tide by Wolfgang "I Wrote Expedition to the Demon Web Pits" Baur is all about the plane hopping. Also check out Chris Wissel's "Diplomacy" from a couple of issues back as well as any old Planescape material.

GGG

[primemover003]

Well the Harrowing and Diplomacy are HIGHER than XDP... I was looking for something closer to 5th-7th levels.

[John Tanzini]

There are 2adventures that are free to download at the wizards website that might fit the bill. I can't remember their names and levels but i'm pretty sure one of them was low level. I'll post the info when I get home since this comp isn't very user friendly.

[John Tanzini]

I'm back! The Wizards website has an adventure called, "Test of the Demonweb," which is designed for 6th level characters; and they also have an adventure called, "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?," which is designed for 11th level characters. Both adventures are free downloads at: http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b

[Obergnom]

Hi,

I recently started a new campaign, originally planned to run from level 6-12, using Shadow&Wrath of the Abyss from Dungeon Magazine #118 & #119 and the Expedition to the Demonweb Pits Adventure.

I scaled the Dungeon Adventures down by 4-5 levels, by using weak giant variants (removing 4 HD roughly lowers their CR by 2, comparing the resulting Frost Giants to MM Hill Giants and the Hill Giants to MM Trolls shows it works out nicely) and changing most of the monsters was easy (Thank you, PCGen. I am suprised, it only took me about 4 hours to change all npcs and creatures in Shadows of the Abyss, that is about 1 hour prep time per session, as I am now intimatly familiar with the adventure and do not have to do additional prep)

My story plan was/is: Starting the Shadows of the Abyss at Chapter 2 (As suggested for those not using the Meta Plot of the Campaign Arc), using the very "Against the Giants" like plot line. (Giants are massing to form an army under new religious leader.)
When the players finish that adventure (having raided a Hill Giant Stronghold) they will find out Drow are behind all this. Enter Wrath of the Abyss chapter 1&2. (Raiding a Drow Hide Out)
This will lead them into EttDP, I will skip the drow at the beginning of that adventure, instead they will find out about Sigil and the multiverse wide drow invasion at the end of "wrath of the abyss".

These were my original plans... simple but effective... but then...

I stumbled across "The Crumbling Halls of the Frost Giant Jarl". A free download at wizards.com. Well, I thought, I could use this in place of the 2 Frost Giants sitting atop a tower in the Demon Quenching Sword Side Quest. Of course, I would change it a bit (using weaker frost giants etc...) but thats not a problem.

I was still hoping I might be able to not actually change the Encounters and Story Line in EttDP, but then... I found yet another adventure... The Heart of Hellfire Mountain... Dungeon Mag #140 ...there it is, the Fire Giants Adventure... I quickly checked if I would be able to scale it down, and yes, going down to level 11 or 12 would be rather easy (from level 20!) ... I really want to use this one, as it would make the whole campaign even more GDQ like... but at the moment I just do not now how.

The important part is the location, a Volcano full of Devil Worshipping Fire Giants and Devils. I would love to use this, maybe even introduce a side trip to Muspelheim. That would be so awesome... :-) ... I just do not know how to...

Oh, and just today, skipping through my Shackled City Book, I thought Zenith Trajectory would fit in just perfect to complete a "The Queen of Spiders" Campaign...

Any sugestions how to connect these adventures?

[Peruhain of Brithondy]

You could also set up some adventuring in Erelhei-Cinlu (last revisited in Dragon 298, with enough info on the city for extensive roleplaying). This would complete your 3.5 GDQ series. I think you'd have to bump up Demonweb Pits a bit to accomplish all this, but shouldn't be much harder to do than bumping down the others (oh, except for that pesky Delve format which claims to take the DM's work away from him but also makes adventures much less flexible).

[Obergnom]

Yep, thats actually my major concern. I am confident to rescale all the dungeon adventures... but the Delve Format Encounters will be harder to rework.

Erelhei-Cinlu - I do not own that Dragon Mag, but it will be in Drow of the Underdark and Expedition to the Demonweb Pits actually has a Portal leading there... I just need a good idea to point my players into the City and do some adventuring at that place :-)