Night Below

Brisk-sg · Oct 23, 2003

[EDITED OUT DUE TO SLIP UP DEALING WITH CONVERSION]

Seravin · Nov 3, 2003

Hmmm.
Just noticed something while running the third book. In case it wasn't obvious to other folks (it wasn't to me) - the map that Aljayera gives the party of the Sunless Sea is somewhat inaccurate.

I didn't notice it until I compared the two side-by-side shortly after giving it to the players. sigh. At least I caught it before it was an issue.

<edit: changed the wording of a sentence for clarity.>

Hammerhead · Nov 4, 2003

Maybe it was on purpose. If I recall, her intel on Shaboath wasn't all that great, compared to Iphizeen. Maybe her Scry spells just aren't working or something.

Does anyone else plan on trimming or actually trim the middle of the second act, a mindless hackfest?

Seravin · Nov 4, 2003

Hammerhead said:
Maybe it was on purpose. If I recall, her intel on Shaboath wasn't all that great, compared to Iphizeen. Maybe her Scry spells just aren't working or something.

Does anyone else plan on trimming or actually trim the middle of the second act, a mindless hackfest?

After I caught the discrepancy I assumed the same thing. The players just found that out this Sunday. They thought they were going to see illithids and instead found derro.
heh.

As for the mindless hackfest, I ran it as is, but interrupted it with a side adventure in the middle of it all.
It also proved useful for a number of reasons:
1. It allowed the party to get a number of xp's. However by the time the characters got to the derro guardpost, the normal derro were value-less.
2. It gave the party time to let loose on lesser monsters. The quaggoth and hook-horrors were good for this. The characters opened up and had fun if only for that reason.

If you do reduce the encounters I would suggest the following:
1. Reduce the number of trolls
2. Reduce the quaggoth and hook horrors.
3. Get rid of either the behir or the dragon. Unless the characters go straight to the behir that should be a cake walk for the party. The dragon is going to be tough regardless - but the treasure is nice.
4. Reduce the wandering monster frequency to once or twice a day.
5. Think about what level you want the party to be when they face the guard post and the City of the Glass Pool. Keep an eye on how big those encounters can grow to (all 3 of the Kuo-toan Dukes will be a handfull).
Round out with the wandering monsters or better yet with a side adventure for a change of pace.

Leopold · Nov 10, 2003

my PC's loved the hackfest, they didn't tackle the dragons but obiliterated all the other enemies and got lots of loot. The trolls killed PC's left and right as they should but they are now starting book3 at around 15th-18th level. They will be epic by the time they hit the city, we shall see.

RedShirtNo5 · Nov 16, 2003

Brisk, I also could use a copy of the conversion document. I'm at debdav3@attbi.com.

We had our first real session of the campaign on Thursday night!

Nice combat with the "farmers". PCs managed basically used only non-lethal attacks, and managed to subdue Carlanis and all but one bandit, who escaped. Next session should be the interrogation and meeting the folk of Milbourne and Thurmaster.

Hopefully I can convince one of the players to keep a journal, since I don't have time for a story hour.

-RedShirt

Seravin · Nov 26, 2003

The bloody conversion on book 3 is way too long. Darn near done though.

In the meantime, here's a link to where I posted the two main bad guys.

Thoughts, suggestions, and comments are most welcome.

<edit: for the record - it's a 106 pages, 10pt Times New Roman - though with plenty of spacing for readability.>

Seravin · Dec 24, 2003

Additional food for thought for those looking to convert.
I can't seem to find exactly how deep the Sunless Sea is.
My players went to Sunkenhome this last week and met the Kraken and the Banshee and are looking to explore the depths of the city now.

I've arbritarily set the depth at 350 feet, but it will be something for DM's to consider. Something I didn't consider up front is how the party will even find the city. If it's too deep they can't possibly see it from above without some Deus ex DM. (In my case, one of the characters could sense it).

In my group's case, they went to Sunkenhome to see if there were really elves there and if they could ally with them against the aboleth.

Mista Collins · Dec 28, 2003

I thought the Aboleth city wasn't completely underwater. I thought that is used to be under water, but was raised because the aboleth found out that their experiments with the towers weren't working at the great depths. So in the end they ended up rasing the city (not sure how) so that the city can be seen from the surface, but is still slightly (2-3 feet) emerged in water.

I could be wrong.

But I am currently running this campaign and my players just finished up the Smooth Caves and are going to be heading to the Caves of the Slime Lord. Anyone have this section of the adventure converted? And if so.. could you please send a copy to collinsbd@northwood.edu . I have a problem converting/creating monsters and many of the oozes I can't find anywhere.

Seravin · Dec 28, 2003

Mista Collins said:
I thought the Aboleth city wasn't completely underwater. I thought that is used to be under water, but was raised because the aboleth found out that their experiments with the towers weren't working at the great depths. So in the end they ended up rasing the city (not sure how) so that the city can be seen from the surface, but is still slightly (2-3 feet) emerged in water.

I could be wrong.

But I am currently running this campaign and my players just finished up the Smooth Caves and are going to be heading to the Caves of the Slime Lord. Anyone have this section of the adventure converted? And if so.. could you please send a copy to collinsbd@northwood.edu . I have a problem converting/creating monsters and many of the oozes I can't find anywhere.

Nope. You are right. The aboleth city (Shaboath) was raised to be slightly above water.
Sunkenhome however is a lost drow outpost that was sunk beneath the waves many years ago by powerful magic. Upon rereading the section, apparently air bubbles will occasionally rise to the surface, alerting the pc's of it's presence (it also marked on the map the rockseers give them - but also says it's a rumor).

I've changed Sunkenhome to suit my tastes however and have decided it was the original home of the Rockseer elves. Millennia ago their kin turned to evil (specifically the worship of some demons such as Jubiliex). The elves who were to become the Rockseers were the only ones who did not participate in this worship. Eventually the Rockseers foresaw the cataclysm that would sink their home and they left - just in time.
They wandered for a time - creating a new home in the smooth-caves, but vengeful creatures from their old-city pursued them, cursing their home. Finally they came to rest in their current halls.
As the oldest, Aljayera remembers the times in the smooth caves but he has no direct or good memory of Sukenhome itself.
....anyway, that's how I hooked it altogether in my game.

As for conversion notes, I'll see what I have. I have a 3.0 conversion of that somewhere - but we're about ready to start gaming - so it will have to be later tonight.