D&D 5E Expanding Wave Echo Cave to bring PCs to 6th level

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Anyway, i don't know if i'll do it or not. Part of me really wants to go homebrew on the last part of Phandelver, but part of me also wants to run some classic D&D modules like Ravenloft. There's just too many options, and all of them good ones, and only limited time.

Hah, I'll be running Ravenloft next. I've been jotting down DM notes here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?373129-Converting-Ravenloft-for-5e

Please add any Ravenloft thoughts you have!

 

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The skeletons on auto-pilot take the finished metal into the storeroom/treasury. Bad news for the PCs is that when they get there they find the mother of all Rust Monsters and her brood. Having an endless supply of metal fed to her has made he huge and lazy, a fight well beyond them but easily avoided, unless they want her 'horde'. Her children however and less easily avoided.

Bullettes/Umberhulks could also be included in order to make tunnels into the complex. This then allows for a sensible reason for creatures like the Rust Monsters or any underdark horror to have found their way into the place.

I love it and am using it! Thanks!

 

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I basically set it up so that Wave Echo Cave was actually a side-level to a larger, Moria-like complex centered on the underground lake.

What monsters did you choose? Lava opens up all kinds of fire possibilities.

I'm having trouble with the ecology of the place. So hard to populate a sterile mine. It's basically undead and automatons.

 

[Nebulous]

I basically set it up so that Wave Echo Cave was actually a side-level to a larger, Moria-like complex centered on the underground lake. There used to be passageways connecting it to the larger complex, but they all collapsed in subsequent earthquakes. To get the players interested in braving the lake to get to the other parts, I've included a large overview map of the complex, which includes "The Greater Spellforge", an enormous arcane furnace heated by lava flows from under the volcano.

-The Gneech

ETA: Oh, and yes, I connected mine to Thunderspire Labyrinth. The northern portions of Phandelver are actually the duergar portions of that setting in my game, although I've completely retooled it from the 4E version (basically a remake keeping the core story elements and throwing out the rest).

Yes, sir, he did, i saw Gneech's map and it is BADASS. That's what made me want to expand Phandelver past 5th level. I could take it all the way to 9th. The 7 Pillar Hall would become the hub, and if i remember correctly, Gneech introduced a lesser and greater Spellforge.

But like i said, Ravenloft also beckons I don't know why i put a sad face, i should be glad there's so many options!

 

[Nebulous]

What monsters did you choose? Lava opens up all kinds of fire possibilities.

I'm having trouble with the ecology of the place. So hard to populate a sterile mine. It's basically undead and automatons.

With water, lava and tunnels, your options are practically endless as far as D&D ecology. Troglodytes, lizard men, mushroom people, elementals, any para-elemental, beholders or mind flayers or drow or duergar, i mean the options go on and on. If I were you (and you're not, so feel free to ignore me) I'd take a closer look again at the map for the Hall and see what ideas it sparks.

 

[The_Gneech]

What monsters did you choose? Lava opens up all kinds of fire possibilities.

I'm having trouble with the ecology of the place. So hard to populate a sterile mine. It's basically undead and automatons.

Well, it's a large complex, so it's got different zones...

• The duergar-controlled areas that connect to Thunderspire Labyrinth have... obviously... duergar. Also some illithid hiding in the deepest regions.
• One section is a contested zone between a colony of orcs (descendants of the invaders) and invading quaggoths (who are allied with Nezzannar)
• A myconid colony that is more or less neutral in all things
• One of the dwarven lords who ran the mine was cursed during its fall and became a vampire; he now "rules" a section as a self-styled king of the undead from a palace overlooking the underground lake
• The lava flow leads down into deeper cave sections populated by fire elementals, demons, and heavy-duty underdark baddies like ropers and beholders.
• The underground lake eventually connects to the Sunless Sea, which in turn opens up most of the underdark for exploration if desired.

-The Gneech

 

[Nebulous]

You could even take Thunderspire Labyrinth and just reskin for the complex. It's got enough little bits in there that can be fleshed out into larger areas. Including a duergar stronghold.

The Minotaur Testing Grounds was one of the craziest encounters i've run in D&D maybe, well, ever. I had 3 PCs die there. Between a blood lake filled with demons and animating statues, and a floating sphere of Annihilation, to a gnoll half demon cleric, it was balls to the wall scary.

 

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Check out Scrivener of Doom's stuff at http://my-realms.blogspot.com.au/?m=1

Thank you, thank you. I dunno how I missed checking your link until now. Very rich resource.

I like this:

Until Lost Mine of Phandelver was published, all we basically have by way of information about Phandalin and Wave Echo Cave was this:

"The orc attacks forced gnomes and dwarves to abandon a mountain delve near Phandalin where they mined mithral in a union they called the Phandelver's Pact. This lost lode was called Wavecho Cave because the roll of waves beating on the shore could be heard in the natural cavern. Shortly before the mine was abandoned, a lode of platinum was discovered. The size is unknown, but a very old dwarf who worked the mine remembers that the vein 'held great promise'."

Five minutes reading and I already know what ores the mine is ostensibly after.

Skeletons have intelligence 6 so they can recognize a vein of ore, they just can't differentiate between ores. They're just hacking away at an enormous cliff face, criss-crossed by ramps, also hacked away. So any mithril or platinum found is by the least efficient means possible and they've probably been smelted together frequently.

Yes, the Rust Monsters are going to be gorged and numerous. If the players are smart they'll keep their magical weapons sheathed and run away. I'll say they're a multi-generational colony that's evolved to be chronically obese and capable only of moving at 20 (normal's 40).

 

[Agglomérante]

Well, it's a large complex, so it's got different zones...

• A myconid colony that is more or less neutral in all things
• One of the dwarven lords who ran the mine was cursed during its fall and became a vampire; he now "rules" a section as a self-styled king of the undead from a palace overlooking the underground lake
• The lava flow leads down into deeper cave sections populated by fire elementals, demons, and heavy-duty underdark baddies like ropers and beholders.
• The underground lake eventually connects to the Sunless Sea, which in turn opens up most of the underdark for exploration if desired.

I'm digging the myconid colony, possibly enraged by the party's footfalls having killed sentient moss. I'm reminded of a ridiculous Space 1999 episode where, on an away mission, a party member eats a cherry tomato that turns out to be a sentient life form (and she goes on trial by plants, for murder).

Also digging the lava flow, fire elementals, probably some para-elementals (or whatever they're called now).

A roper is perfect. Beholder is crazy man, what are you thinking? How are they gonna talk their way out of that?

I don't own a book on the underdark so can't really introduce it. I'd rather not introduce a vampire before I run Ravenloft, but I love the self-style King idea. Think I'll say there's a mine Boss, maybe a spellcasting wight.

This whole scenario gives something for the undead to be doing, other than (what the adventure proposes) the ghouls somehow still chewing on bones after 500 years. The bones are, um, long gone.

So I should rough this out on graph paper and crunch the xp tonight, in case I need to run it Saturday. The party's about to hit Cragmaw Castle, and the group will put in a good 10 hours of gaming. Cragmaw can go quickly if the party dresses up as Redbrands to scam the goblins (likely, knowing my group). And the first group I played LMoP with found the camouflaged door and took their first left, walking into the King Grol fight right away.

 

[The_Gneech]

I'm digging the myconid colony, possibly enraged by the party's footfalls having killed sentient moss. I'm reminded of a ridiculous Space 1999 episode where, on an away mission, a party member eats a cherry tomato that turns out to be a sentient life form (and she goes on trial by plants, for murder).

I actually put the myconids in there as a wildcard– I decided they have a hard time telling different types of "meat people" apart and so don't get into faction wars. They attack anything that comes at them with hostility, and ignore or parley anything else. I was also thinking it might be amusing to set up some kind of merchant there, but I haven't figured out what. A traveling gnome scholar who's been living among the mushrooms just a little too long, perhaps.

A roper is perfect. Beholder is crazy man, what are you thinking? How are they gonna talk their way out of that?

If they're crazy enough (or high-level enough) to go rafting down a lava flow into dungeon levels full of demons, they can probably take on a beholder. Everything down that road is intended for future campaign expansion rather than immediate use.

I don't own a book on the underdark so can't really introduce it. I'd rather not introduce a vampire before I run Ravenloft, but I love the self-style King idea. Think I'll say there's a mine Boss, maybe a spellcasting wight.

This whole scenario gives something for the undead to be doing, other than (what the adventure proposes) the ghouls somehow still chewing on bones after 500 years. The bones are, um, long gone.

A spellcasting wight works too. Or a ghoul, or even a lich or heucuva. FWIW I don't have any books on the underdark either, just the bits I've picked up from drow supplements or other modules over the years. I sort of see it as somewhere between Wonderland, Pellucidar, and Dante's Inferno. With just a hint of Dark Crystal thrown in.

-The Gneech