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Thanks to all who gave fantastic advice on my Duergar Mine encounter, it's setup and ready to go. I'm now wondering what kind of things an abandoned Drow city/town in the Darklands would have.
Right now I have a city with walls surrounding that are more "grown" there than built (stone shape? Wall of stone? Some sort of living lithoid deposits?). There is a temple at one end of the town, an armory/barracks next to the temple, a dozen or so houses, and a wizard's tower. What else would an abandoned Drow town have? What sort of things might be lying in the street? Why would it even be abandoned in the first place?
thanks in advance!
There would likely be corpses or skeletons lying in the street, though not necessarily drow. Chances are, there would also be some sort of darklands denizens that have moved in, even if they do not occupy the entire city. You'd likely find overgrown mushroom groves, perhaps some rubble, masses of subterranean pests, possibly minor undead still going about their routines, spiders (and more spiders, and lots more spiders, and possibly a few driders), the occasional minor magical trinket... There are loads of things that could work.
As to why it would be abandoned, chances are there was some kind of war (lots of rubble and broken architecture), or disease that left lots of corpses (some of which might have even risen due to their exceptional evil wills), or something else that was more powerful than they could handle (like a supremely powerful denizen of the lower planes or a venerable dracolich, perhaps) moved in and they had to go.
I hope that gives you a start.
Here's my advice: Why is it abandoned? They Ticked off a Demon Lord, or possibly a demon binding when a wry. Either way some kind of bargain backfired and the demon came and took them all, in a flash. No death, no killing or fighting, poof gone to the abyss.
As far as the city? There would be monsters in it still, Slurks, giant geckos, spiders. Maybe even driders (the demon didn't care to take those) perhaps still a lurking former slave or two.
Would be a neat place to hang out if you were a cloaker or a choker.
Slimes, oozes, etc.
I would ASSUME it would have been looted already, probably by dark creepers etc.
Dont forget to include things like arenas of sport and torture chambers.
If a drow city is going to build a wall, they are going to do it to drow standards. They can climb walls and levitate so walls mean nothing. Their wall would be a dome or "floor to ceiling" wall with arrow slits or some other means to defend it against the outside. Something must have penetrated the defensive dome, shattering or collapsing at least part of the dome. What caused that collapse and what kind of catastrophic effects would that cause to the town when the dome fell on it?
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How about drow who burrowed their homes out of a giant hanging stalagtite? Something (like an earthquake)ccaused the city to fall to the cavern floor, where it shattered. You could have all sorts of off kilter room and broken hallways which throw dimensions off for travel and combats inside. The Drow left because they could not reattach their home to the ceiling of the cavern. They went elsewhere to rebuild.
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How about drow who burrowed their homes out of a giant hanging stalagtite? Something (like an earthquake)ccaused the city to fall to the cavern floor, where it shattered. You could have all sorts of off kilter room and broken hallways which throw dimensions off for travel and combats inside. The Drow left because they could not reattach their home to the ceiling of the cavern. They went elsewhere to rebuild.
Now THAT is wild. That's going to lead to some ideas.
Killed by an ooze. A colossal ooze.
I do like the stalagtite idea.
My first thought was that mining, or an earthquake broke into an underground lake and the entire town was submerged. The water has only recently drained away leaving a sodden, half-flooded ruin.
Undead, definitely. Maybe ghosts of the destroyed drow, or a Revenant out for revenge on the town-killer -- either can be a hook for further adventuring, or a DM plot exposition device. Two drow ghosts fighting over whose responsibility it was could be fun.
Traps. Some of them obviously discharged, giving the PCs fair warning. Mostly nasty, twisted, and painful. You might've have a symbol or two up protecting the temple or someone's treasure vault.
You want to explain why nobody has moved in and settled the area. Habitable space is at a premium underground. A scavenger or two (fungus, otyugh, gelatinous cube) might be there, perhaps with a fiendish or advanced template to reflect lingering drow magical radiation.
A public torture gallery for entertainment and giving lessons to other slaves onthe cost of rebellion. Could be as simple as chains to lower a prisoner into the spider pit, all the way up to illustrated bulletin boards announcing the children's matinee flaying and quartering.
Drow are elves. Illusions and trickery likely abound, both as town defenses and as traps for intruders. Some of them might affect only non-elves. Some might just tag intruders for tracking and disposal (hi, you got tagged by hour-long faerie fire in color X, and the bound invisible stalker has orders to kill anything glowing in color X). Poisoned arrow or spike traps, perhaps combined with spider swarms, are another possibility.
Might have been attacked by mind flyers or intellect devourers, in which case drow skeletons might be lying around with odd holes in their heads, or skulls exploded from the inside. Maybe the intellect devourer is still hanging around and will go after one of the PCs or their minions...
Phase spiders nesting in the area mithave gotten out of control and still be hunting. Grat for paranoia if any PCs go off alone and get bitten.
well just because drow can climb and levitate doesn't mean they dont build walls, the walls aren't necessarily to keep drow in or out. It's more about keeping slaves in and trespassers out.
If I have special movement abilites Im going to set up my defensible space to allow maximum use of it. Not hinder it. a dome would make my wall climbing and levitation less useful.
Plus you are operating in a genre where fly is a 3rd level spell, anyone without access to it as a spell caster in the darklands is already a slave, or lunch.
Perhaps with all the sudden there being so many Drow Paladin PCs, maybe they ALL originated in the same city?
With there suddenly being thousands of Paladins smiting all their relatives and neighbors from inside the city walls, the Drow city crumbled to it's knees in a matter of hours. The PC paladins, bored with nothing to smite, moved on?
How about drow who burrowed their homes out of a giant hanging stalagtite? Something (like an earthquake)ccaused the city to fall to the cavern floor, where it shattered. You could have all sorts of off kilter room and broken hallways which throw dimensions off for travel and combats inside. The Drow left because they could not reattach their home to the ceiling of the cavern. They went elsewhere to rebuild.Now THAT is wild. That's going to lead to some ideas.
Now you have me working on this for my own campaign. Let me know how yours turns out.
Now you have me working on this for my own campaign. Let me know how yours turns out.How about drow who burrowed their homes out of a giant hanging stalagtite? Something (like an earthquake)ccaused the city to fall to the cavern floor, where it shattered. You could have all sorts of off kilter room and broken hallways which throw dimensions off for travel and combats inside. The Drow left because they could not reattach their home to the ceiling of the cavern. They went elsewhere to rebuild.Now THAT is wild. That's going to lead to some ideas.
This was one of the features of the City of Menzoberranzan. You may wish to hunt for ideas there.
In advance to the post. Sorry for the poor grammar and such. It's late and I'm posting from my phone... But to the post at hand.
Well couple of questions...
How big of a city are we talking about? Large city? Small outpost town? Each would have different purposes.
Important things to remember: only drow nobles get levitate so the common folk of drow would be limited to the ground and not everyone can afford a riding gecko.
Large: would be an economic and trading center. With several noble houses competing to be the top house of the city. Maybe instead of one town taking up an entire stalactite (c is for ceiling...this is the one that hang from the ceiling) you have a city taking up a large cavern. With important structures taking up stalactites illuminated with dancing lights and other magical effects (nobles houses each taking up their own) a Mage tower being a stalactite and a reverse tower, and most importantly a church of lolth that would be the most magnificent structure in the city. ). For the commoners they would build their holes on the ground or in stalagmites jutting from the ground. Maybe the greatest of the stalagmites going to the city guard barracks and the city market. Or even a gladiatorial arena. You can still use the idea of a great stalactite crashing from the ceiling, crooked so that it forms a climable surface to a different stalactite without the need for magic. So if it's a city remember that it's gonna be a major hub for trading (poison, fine goods, slaves and the goods of other cultures)
The smaller town is gonna have a more narrowed focus. Why is this town here on the fringes. Maybe it's a town that's part of the slave trade. Capturing slaves before shipping them to a bigger city trade hub. Is it a base of operations for surface raids. Either way: figure the focus. What would one of these towns have? If a slave trade outpost it would have pens and cages for slaves. Barracks. A church. A smaller one more then likely. A tavern of some type for drinking... Model it like old western towns. Just more drowy. However these probably will be made up of mostly common / non noble drow so it will be based on the ground and maybe in a smaller cavern where they can't lose the battle of higher ground with things far up the ceiling that they can't see.
Now as to why this place is abandoned. Idk what you are looking to do in your compaign. But why not have it tie in with a major plot point or a new one. Could have been a slave uprising that's spreading through out the under dark (what I will call it after all these years). The slaves will outnumber the slavers. I am also a fan of demon gates and such. Or a good ole war between cities.