Hey all. I am running an Underdark campaign, and we are on our 4th or 5th session now. My PCs are all level 3, but they have shown a knack for taking on higher than normal CR challenges and all surviving. Oh, and they are also all evil. Last session, they hired up with basically a "thieves guild" type of organization, and are on a mission to retrieve some gewgaw out of an abandoned mine that has been overrun with aberrations and undead. (Think like the first "Resident Evil" movie)
Anyone got any good ideas of scenarios to present them with after they finish with the mission they are currently on? My group is extremely good-humored and will run through pretty much any wacky idea that anybody can come up with. Any thoughts?
Anyone got any good ideas of scenarios to present them with after they finish with the mission they are currently on? My group is extremely good-humored and will run through pretty much any wacky idea that anybody can come up with. Any thoughts?
Territorial conflicts between drow, duergar, svirfneblin, beholders and mind-flayers, with some surface dwarf mining expeditions and myconid colonies mixed in?
Maybe... an underground sea/swamp populated by warring naga and merfolk. I’m thinking lots of bizarre albino creatures with creepy sightless eyes. Both sides have exotic goodies ripe for the taking and are more than willing to pay for information on the other side or other help with the conflict. It really depends on what motivates your characters though. You could go with a smash and grab or scheme and grab.
A manual lift (like those on the ski slopes) that carries characters and gear across a wide chasm. The passenger compartment can have a "wheel" that needs to be turned to get the compartment to move along the wire.
Have flying creatures or creatures with ranged attacks attack the PCs while they are in the process of using the lift. Even better, give them some kind of time restraint so they HAVE to get to the other side before something bad happens. That way one character will always be turning the wheel.
Wizard: *turn turn turn* Quick take the wheel! I have just the spell for these guys!
Fighter: *Relives wizard* Turn 'em to ash, Longbeard!
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Attack them while they are climbing.
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Put them in an area where the only means of getting around are via smooth vertical shafts. The area was built by drow with levitate, or a beholder's disintegrate ray (he can simply fly up and down whereas the PCs have to climb).
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Have a drow or some other dungeon denizen disguise themselves as somebody in need of help. Then lure them into a dead end where they will be ambushed by a quartet of umber hulks or other nasty creatures.
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Underground sea which is heavily patrolled by kua-toa or similar semi-aquatic creatures who have an island temple at its center. The temple belongs to the Kua-Toa, but the true master whom they serve and worship is the powerful aboleth under the sea.
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A dragon's lair, complete with traps and minions. This idea can be combined with any of the above.
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A mated pair of Medusa and their pet gorgon who are intelligent enough to take the total defense action while waiting on their gaze and their pet to petrify the PCs.
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A thin floor which breaks when the PCs walk on it. Below is a pit with an ooze in it.
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A subterraneon wizard's tower complete with magical wards and lots and LOTS of animated objects ready to defend it (bonus points if the PCs make it through the first two or three rooms with nothing more than a creepy vibe before the objects attack). The wizard himself is on the top floor monitoring the PCs through his many painting and his ENTER IMAGE spell. When the PCs get to the wizard, he turns out to simply be a PROJECT IMAGE, and he is actually hiding behind a nearby painting with false eyes.
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A beserk golem simply runs screaming out of the dark and smashes into the party. The mystery to be solved is where it came from.
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A team of drow lure the PCs in close by looking outnumbered and out-equipped. In actuality, the drow have allied themselves with a team of cloakers. When the party attack the drow, the cloakers fly off and attack. The drow and the cloakers together easily outnumber the party.
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The PCs stumble into a dark naga's domain. Displeased with the intruders, the dark naga uses hit and run tactics, blasting them with fireballs and lightning bolts while slowing them down with things like web spells. The sly naga is always one move action away from a narrow burrow that its serpentine body can fit into, but the PCs can't without escape artist checks.
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A neolithid and his intellect devours attempt to charm/trick the PCs and get them to lead them to the surface, where they can capture even more slaves.
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The moment the PCs do something to despoil the environment they are beset by a group of rust monsters, whose dwarven druid master is displeased with their careless ways.
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A skeletal champion guards a tomb that holds his treasure (the champion lost his mind long ago, the treasure he still guards has since crumbled into worthless dust).
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A lich transmuter kidnaps one of the PCs or an NPC known to them. They must rescue their companion from his subterranean lair before the lich enacts "his experiments."
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That's all the ideas I have right now (well, not really, but I have to get to bed).
Many of them are designed to be combined with one another.
For example: A lich transmuter kidnaps an important NPC. The PCs must make their way into the underdark, cross an underground sea (fighting kua-toa, humanoid slaves, and an aboleth), avoid drow patrols (and their cloaker companions), avoid distractions (side quest to save someone else only to end up in an umber hulk ambush), cross a wide chasm (via a lift, fighting dire bats the entire way), and find a way into the lich's lair (which is guarded by animated objects).
If you use one or more of my encounters, I want to hear about how it went.
Retrieving the gewgaw from an abandoned mine was just the entrance exam. Turns out the group passed. Now comes the real test. There's a small duergar city in the Shallows of the Underdark whose inhabitants have purportedly taken something from their above-ground brethren – a legendary dwarven hammer. These dwarves will pay well and have hired the group because, while the dwarves might have reservations about doing whatever was necessary to retrieve the hammer, the PCs are known for their lack of limitations. There's a catch, the dwarves will expose the theive's guild if the mission is not successful. The guildmaster tells the PCs if they don't get the hammer, don't bother coming back. If they're successful, however, their future as guild leadership is assured.
The duergar colony is too big for a frontal assault. The PCs need to find a reason and plausible story for being there. Occasionally, out of the corner of their eyes, the PCs see something that doesn't look like a duergar. Interviews inquiring about something strange lead to stories of duergar disappearing. Some of the inhabitants are struggling to hold on to their santiy. Physical investigation yields mucus trails at the outskirts of the city. The investigation culminates when the PCs come across a slime skinned duergar in the final stages of becoming an aboleth servitor. Knowing the PCs are on their trail, the aboleth seem to have disappeared.
Sure enough, the hammer has gone to The Deeps. The PCs are faced with the challenge of an aboleth brood, far too powerful for them to achieve victory. A deadly gamble becomes the only clear option: the PCs must make a pact with a group of mind flayers, the sworn foes of aboleths. Once they find the mind flayers gaining their assistance will require certain deeds to be done, several of which include bringing a live brain to the illithid leader. Duergar brain, while tough, is definitely satisfying.
A pact is made, the battle waged. The PCs recover the hammer and the aboleths are destroyed. Yet the mind flayers have their intentions for the duergar town and furthermore have no intentions of letting the PCs just leave....
If you can get the Mezzoberanzan boxed set, do so.
They are evil, that's handy, because a Drow from one family might hire/seduce one of them to do in another family. See the CLEAVES. A Drow might send them in there to retrieve a Rod of Betrayal. Think carefully before you have a character turned into a Dryder.
I know I misspelled the name of the city, but it may be copywrited so it's just as well.
You might have a Drow wizard rescue the characters for their own selfish reasons.