I’m DMing a group that completely threw me a curveball. This group entered the Underdark and came across a Drow city, and through a myriad of spells and disguise checks, have infiltrated a city (mostly because they mind controlled a drow who helped them get inside and even helped them exchange gold for the currency of the realm). Anywho, I didn’t plan in the slightest that they would be able to infiltrate the city, at all, and I have nothing except my improv so far. It’s a city of ~100,000 Drow.
I need ideas of what these players could possibly come across in this next session. Party is Bard, Druid, Bloodrager, Inquisitor and Cleric.
Slave market, maybe selling someone they know or think will be useful?
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This isn't enough information. What do the players want? What are they doing there? What are their goals?
Did they just stumble upon the city and infiltrate it because they could?
Disguise is not enough to navigate the complex political intrigues of the Drow. The Drow they mind controlled? That person is going to be missed (either because they're important enough to be missed, or aren't doing something expected of them). Someone is going to come looking.
The players have crawled half-way down a dragon's throat, just because they could, they shouldn't be surprised when they get burned.
Slave market, maybe selling someone they know or think will be useful?
Outstanding, I can totally use that :)
This isn't enough information. What do the players want? What are they doing there? What are their goals?
Did they just stumble upon the city and infiltrate it because they could?
Disguise is not enough to navigate the complex political intrigues of the Drow. The Drow they mind controlled? That person is going to be missed (either because they're important enough to be missed, or aren't doing something expected of them). Someone is going to come looking.
The players have crawled half-way down a dragon's throat, just because they could, they shouldn't be surprised when they get burned.
I will explain quite a bit. This is a homebrew campaign. Three surface major cities, and their townships, are under fire from two sides: goblins/kobolds/drow from the plains of the west, and orcs/demons from the mountains of the east. The group has spent months trying to take care of the goblin/kobold/drow threat on the surface, but has not defeated it entirely because they have only dealt with the surface machinations of this faction. As of this point, the party has ignored the orc/demon camps of the east (and they are beginning to win; the orcs/demons have successfully razed two townships, and are pressing upon a third). After much adventuring on the surface, a Templar noticed this party for their ability to vanquish the goblin/kobold/drow threat, and the Templar has decided that his own army will focus on abating the Orc/Demon threat, while he also hires the party of adventurers for 20,000gp per party member to search the Underdark for the root cause of the problem that is happening on the surface. Basically, this Templar hires the party to eliminate the Drow threat at its root - delve into the Underdark and destroy it at the source.
However, as a DM, I have completely F$&*ed up. This party was only meant to SEE this city, and not be able to gain entrance to it. But through magic, mind control, disguise, and exceptional creativity, they have managed to get inside. It's a Drow city of ~100,000 denizens. We spent a little over half of our last session inside this Drow city, and they used Mind Control on a "con-man/grifter" type of person named Ishtrar, who is basically a "guy who knows guys". He has helped them exchange surface gold for credeza (This is a homebrew campaign, and credeza is the currency of the realm in this of underdark city called Pharozhani). Ishtrar has also helped them secure lodging at a tavern called the Invisible Tiara... his own favorite tavern, and has even paid off numerous guards (because he was mind controlled) to allow them access to the city without any persecution, disturbance or harassment.
I have content for everything BUT this city. And this is why I need advice.
The Bard is here for his own self-glory, basically to tell the feats of the group as his grand own tales in taverns, to both entice tavern wenches and commonfolk, especially the "ladies of tavern frequence", as well as other would-be adventurers, and basically gain the admiration of all as a legitimate warrior, of sorts. He wishes to crown himself as "Prince of Adventuring" through highly-embellished story and song.
The Cleric is actually a half-drow, but hates Drow. She came down to the Underdark to cleanse it. She wants to kill everything down here.
The Druid has no actual ambition whilst down in the Underdark, as he has much more pressing matters on the surface. He's only down here because the group is down here.
The Bloodrager seeks an honorable death, one which would be the stories of legend amongst her kin and tribe. She only fights because any battle could be her last, and she prays for that.
The Inquisitor is like a hunter of the undead and all things that represent, harbor, or embrace the undead. He is a Witch Hunter, plain and simple. However, through unfortunate circumstance, he was hunting an extremely powerful Vampire and was unable to subdue him. This powerful Vampire bit the Inquisitor, and turned him because he worships the deity, Aleazor (homebrew, Aleazor is a deity who hates the undead), and this powerful Vampire thought it was quite fitting and ironic that the Inquisitor would be turned into something that he and his god legitimately hates. The Inquisitor is now a Vampire, and has been for only a short while - this incident only happened a few months ago. The Inquisitor's entire mission now is to vanquish the Vampire who turned him, and then commit suicide, because even in his own eyes, his own life is anathema... in his own eyes, he is blasphemous filth that should be destroyed.
My goal for this city was that the party would see it, be unable to enter it, and simply go elsewhere. However, using Mind Control, genuine trickery and just genuine strategy, they are inside now.
Anywho, that's why I need help. We play again in a week from now, and I have nothing for this city. I need advice and encounter possibilities, insight into politics, etc.
The characters are level 9, but they are quite powerful, so they can take CR11 or even CR12. I love "knock-down, drag'em-out" fights. Suggestions?
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Maybe this isn't the place to fight, but instead deliver clues to lead the PCs to the place where all the action is.
Pharozhani isn't part of this drow/surface alliance. They're really indifferent. They've got no ambitions toward the surface, but rather want to claim more of the Underdark. The other cities are putting resources into the surface campaign, but these drow are waiting for them to weaken themselves enough to be ripe for conquest. Or at least to be put into a weaker, subordinate position.
Your PCs can find out about all this through their mind-controlled contact, who's picking up on what's happening and seeing the Pharozhani noble families mobilizing for a march not to the surface but into the Underdark. Maybe the PCs can even get themselves hired as a scouting party for the trip, making some extra coin and finding their way to the next city over that's actually involved.
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Their overall goal is to 'eliminate the Drow threat at its root' and you had a plan for that, but they saw the city, gathered all their smarts and abilities and dove in - right?
If they want to find some person in here who might be behind the Drow threat and assassinate him, which is what the players I know well would probably do, then they need to identify this person and probably sneak into their home. If you go with VRMH's idea perhaps the person they buy or extract from the slave market will be able to inform them about who to assassinate.
Extracting someone from the slave market (because they can't raise the money/don't want to pay/made the slaver guards suspicious and got kicked out) probably means beating up a few minor guards on the perimeter then perhaps taking on a serious guardian while more minor guards trickle in a few at a time. If they're super stealthy they might get to finish the serious guardian first. A few others might show up as well - interested purchasers who will probably side with the guards unless the PCs bluff or bribe well, maybe a slave who broke free and is on a furious rampage attacking anyone in their way, maybe a rogue tries to sneak by in the confusion and might react in panic to anyone noticing them.
Putting stats to that. Drow make extensive use of non-drow slaves as guards and similar, but goblins and kobolds don't make impressive guards. Perhaps an ogre mancatcher and an ogre brute or two initially.
The serious guardian might be a hezrou planar bound to the job, or a psychic lich whose legend is related to this place. As a drow psychic lich expect the legend to be disgusting.
The guards trickling in are likely to be ogre brutes and ogre bosses mainly but you can throw in a few drow or others.
Grab whatever NPCs you like the look of for the last NPCs. Archives of Nethys and d20pfsrd have quite a few dredged up from Paizo publications if you don't have time to make any, though they're obviously not at all optimised.
Edit: OK, never mind that then. Maybe you'll find a use for the above later.
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Maybe this isn't the place to fight, but instead deliver clues to lead the PCs to the place where all the action is.
Pharozhani isn't part of this drow/surface alliance. They're really indifferent. They've got no ambitions toward the surface, but rather want to claim more of the Underdark. The other cities are putting resources into the surface campaign, but these drow are waiting for them to weaken themselves enough to be ripe for conquest. Or at least to be put into a weaker, subordinate position.
Your PCs can find out about all this through their mind-controlled contact, who's picking up on what's happening and seeing the Pharozhani noble families mobilizing for a march not to the surface but into the Underdark. Maybe the PCs can even get themselves hired as a scouting party for the trip, making some extra coin and finding their way to the next city over that's actually involved.
This is amazing. I can't even tell you how perfect this fits into the story. Brilliant.
Their overall goal is to 'eliminate the Drow threat at its root' and you had a plan for that, but they saw the city, gathered all their smarts and abilities and dove in - right?
If they want to find some person in here who might be behind the Drow threat and assassinate him, which is what the players I know well would probably do, then they need to identify this person and probably sneak into their home. If you go with VRMH's idea perhaps the person they buy or extract from the slave market will be able to inform them about who to assassinate.
Extracting someone from the slave market (because they can't raise the money/don't want to pay/made the slaver guards suspicious and got kicked out) probably means beating up a few minor guards on the perimeter then perhaps taking on a serious guardian while more minor guards trickle in a few at a time. If they're super stealthy they might get to finish the serious guardian first. A few others might show up as well - interested purchasers who will probably side with the guards unless the PCs bluff or bribe well, maybe a slave who broke free and is on a furious rampage attacking anyone in their way, maybe a rogue tries to sneak by in the confusion and might react in panic to anyone noticing them.
Putting stats to that. Drow make extensive use of non-drow slaves as guards and similar, but goblins and kobolds don't make impressive guards. Perhaps an ogre mancatcher and an ogre brute or two initially.
The serious guardian might be a hezrou planar bound to the job, or a psychic lich whose legend is related to this place. As a drow psychic lich expect the legend to be disgusting.
The guards trickling in are likely to be...
Absolutely. The party made it past the guards and into the city, and have even figured out a way into the taverns and shopkeepers (btw, they used Ishtrar to find 3.1 ounces of a rare substance that they needed - to which they need about 18 ounces - something called Luxine Celestidium, for a magical item they are trying to create). Anywho, the "greater guards" could be ogres, psychic liches, etc. I really like the idea of a slave market. It's entirely fitting amongst Drow, and could fit in with the politics of Pharozhani.
Edit: I think the PC's could find someone in the fighting pits of Pharozhani, a gladiator of sorts whom the PC's gravitate toward and wish to purchase his freedom, or even not purchase his freedom (and instead perform skill checks of Bluff/Diplomacy). This pit fighter could give a lot of insight towards the politics of Pharozhani, such as, this powerful person X has a lot of political influence, etc.
It's really only a city of 100 drow. All the others are infiltrators from the other factions, adventurers, conmen, war profiteers, and refugees trying to find a new home, all using disguises and magic to appear as drow and thinking there's 100,000 of them. All the guards and soldiers work for other factions and races and do their jobs to maintain cover and go on patrols to pass on information. No one asks too many questions of the PCs because they're all secretly trying not to arouse suspicion or start an inquisition. The rest of the city is made up of slaves and servants of other races.
The only people who know the truth are the drow leaders themselves; the clergy and noble houses and their households who think it's hilarious and constantly try to come up with elaborate rituals, holidays, and 'ancient drow traditions' to find out what crazy ideas the other races can come up with to cover their personas.
There should be a scene at the slave market where their mind-controlled contact slips up and is questioned by drow guards (which may be disguised members of other races) and Ishtrar's disguise falls off, revealing he's really an orc infiltrator before he's hauled off to the slave pits.
"As if anyone would fall for that disguise. I mean, only an idiot would believe anything he said he knew about real drow. Like us."
That's awesome. Basically the whole city is a ruse? And only the ~15-25ish Drow in power know how fragile the whole system is? That's rich.
This is amazing. I can't even tell you how perfect this fits into the story. Brilliant.Maybe this isn't the place to fight, but instead deliver clues to lead the PCs to the place where all the action is.
Pharozhani isn't part of this drow/surface alliance. They're really indifferent. They've got no ambitions toward the surface, but rather want to claim more of the Underdark. The other cities are putting resources into the surface campaign, but these drow are waiting for them to weaken themselves enough to be ripe for conquest. Or at least to be put into a weaker, subordinate position.
Your PCs can find out about all this through their mind-controlled contact, who's picking up on what's happening and seeing the Pharozhani noble families mobilizing for a march not to the surface but into the Underdark. Maybe the PCs can even get themselves hired as a scouting party for the trip, making some extra coin and finding their way to the next city over that's actually involved.
You're welcome. I'm sometimes good at writing other people's stories for them. Have at it then!
You're welcome. I'm sometimes good at writing other people's stories for them. Have at it then!This is amazing. I can't even tell you how perfect this fits into the story. Brilliant.Maybe this isn't the place to fight, but instead deliver clues to lead the PCs to the place where all the action is.
Pharozhani isn't part of this drow/surface alliance. They're really indifferent. They've got no ambitions toward the surface, but rather want to claim more of the Underdark. The other cities are putting resources into the surface campaign, but these drow are waiting for them to weaken themselves enough to be ripe for conquest. Or at least to be put into a weaker, subordinate position.
Your PCs can find out about all this through their mind-controlled contact, who's picking up on what's happening and seeing the Pharozhani noble families mobilizing for a march not to the surface but into the Underdark. Maybe the PCs can even get themselves hired as a scouting party for the trip, making some extra coin and finding their way to the next city over that's actually involved.
<Imagine me at a concert> I have a lit lighter at this point...
After reading the storyline thus far, how else do you think this party would collide with this major Drow city? Hostile collision? Half-n-Half collision?--- where the party is tensely parlaying with actual political figures of Pharozhani to achieve, or even thwart, certain goals? And, based upon the party makeup and their own drives, what might be those goals... Obviously, this group wants to end all Drow life down here (because they were paid to do it, and because of the Cleric)... What might be the solution for destroying this Drow city, and other Drow Cities, according to what this party can do?
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To deal with this situation, the party should really try to engineer a collision between the various cities. They're a powerful party, but shouldn't pick fights with whole cities. But help one city get the drop on the next, weaken them, then take them out? Potentially doable. It's time to go political for the party.
That, and drop the cavern. That's always a good option if you can get away fast enough.
For motivation: battle is good for the bloodrager, cleric's a given. The druid needs convinced this is the quickest way to get things done. The inquisitor might find out there's a relic down there somewhere that has transformative properties. Used to make all sorts of abominations, it might even revive the undead, having possibly been looted from his deity's temple centuries before. The bard can claim it was all his plan and his skills that got it done.
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General, non-specific question:
What are your party's thoughts on genocide?
And do you have access to eversmoking bottles? I've always found underground bases and cities to be quite precarious with their limited access to adequate ventilation.
Why assassinate one Drow noble who MIGHT be contributing to the war efforts on the surface, when you can kill 100,000 Drow who you know are least SOMEONE is helping the war efforts on the surface? If nothing more than military aged bodies to conscript into their ranks, or supplies being provided by the city or transported through it as a hub to support the war on the surface.
Anything worth doing is worth doing right. And half a dozen adventurers killing 100k Drow makes for epic bard songs later, really pumps those kill:death ratio numbers for any party members who carve notches in their buttstocks.
The Second Darkness AP has a ten-page article describing a Drow city. It's in SD 4, Endless Night (AP # 16), which is one of the 3.5 APs. The city there is only half the size of the one you described, but maybe things can be doubled up?
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Pharozhani has had growing tensions of war with the neighboring city-state, Phoz-Reigath, for several months. The denizens of Pharozhai are nearly 40% slaves of various races, and the city of Phoz-Reigath is only ~60,000 denizens, and roughly 55% are slaves.
The Nobles of Pharozhani have discovered "slave thieves" from Phoz-Reigath who have infiltrated their city and successfully exfiltrated their slaves, and they have determined that war is imminent for three reasons: to retreive their lost slaves, to gain more slaves to their own city, and to prevent this slave exfiltration from happening. Thus far, the Pharozhani have refrained from all out war at this point in time, but have positioned extra guards in the caverns that lead to Phoz-Reigath. The tension of all out war is rising.
Nobles of Pharozhani:
Pharatar Eleantyl
Rylphynn Illistyn
Vuzon Helival (richest and most powerful)
Jaezlyn Dhuinavar
Nobles of Phoz-Reigath:
Nimlok Kraul'tymme
Quenlyn Ulionyr
Jevan Cormrael
Slave economics: Mining, smithing, pit fighting, hydroponic farming, and soul-extraction farming.
Pharozhani has been quite successful for years in raiding the surface for weapons, armor and gold, and has become quite rich from these years of raiding (using the goblins/kobolds). They use this loot from the surface to bolster their own city's wealth, but also to provide steel, cold iron, and adamantine ores to the unofficial capitol of this Drow-controlled underdark, Umbranor, a city even deeper than Pharozhani, and gain political favor with her malevolence, the Soul Queen Malyga.
Pharozhani is in the process of diplomatic missions to Umbranor to gain additional ranks to their army for this war, as they have much favor with Umbranor, while Phoz-Reigath does not.
Enter the PC's...