Underdark Adventure Ideas

[Tomn]

I'm going to be DMing an adventure for a group of my friends starting today. I've been thinking about this for a while, but I still feel like I don't have enough ideas to make it a really interesting experience for them. I'd appreciate any cool ideas or material that you could throw my way.

The adventure needs to go from level 3 to level 5. We've just gone through The Sunless Citadel with these characters, and the plot hook that I'm using is that someone has stolen the Magic Apple thingy, which one of the characters needs to save his brother. The main villain of the adventure is going to be a changeling that has grown up with / lives with Drow, so they have to chase this person down through the underdark and retrieve the apple before the villain uses it for her own purposes.

The two other encounters that I've worked out is an encounter with a Doppleganger who is impersonating one character's father, and a Drow raiding party sent their way by the villain to slow them down. As for the characters themselves, there are four of us, all level 3. One is a Psion who specializes in fire, supplementing his abilities with the pyrokinetics skill from the Psychic rulebook (he is the one with the brother who needs the apple). One is a classic rogue (his father is the one that the Doppleganger is going to impersonate). One is a druid who specializes in water magic and carries an umbrella around. The last one is my character (since I won't be DMing this entire campaign, just levels 3-5 and a bit later on), who is a dex-based fighter that refuses to kill anything intelligent, with the exception of evil outsiders. He doesn't have a huge problem with the other party members killing, though.

If anyone has any cool ideas for an encounter or place in the Underdark, it would be really awesome if you could share it with me! Thanks.

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention; the group is going to be bringing along Meepo, since we all think he's cool and funny.

 

[tankiller]

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention; the group is going to be bringing along Meepo, since we all think he's cool and funny.

I'm sorry I'm not familiar enough with under dark to give you an idea, but I just had to say something about meepo. My group also brought him along and gave him sorcerer lvs. Good things are bound to come with him around.

 

[plunoir101]

The underdark has MAJOR potential. Being a big R.A. Salvatore fan I know the kind of dangers and fun you can have in the UD.
You could have a section of the citadel break away to the upper underdark (maybe meepo knows the way) and the party would have to navagate the dangerous network of caves to reach his hideout. The forgotten realms campaign setting has loads of material for the underdark and there's actually a book "Drow of the Underdark" that can clue you into the realm and its inhabitants.
As the PCs go lower, you should incorporate how the drow work into your encounters as the PCs are low level. Drow use other races as slaves. This brings goblins, kobolds (perhaps a friend of Meepo's PLOT HOOOK!!), and other lesser races into the mix at a good CR. Trust me when i say that fighting drow can get tiring fast, I ran "Expedition to the Demonweb Pits" last year and by the end of it we were sick of drow. SR sucks hehe.
Don't forget the natural dangers that lie in underground adventuring. Aside from monsters, there are things like natural gas pockets that ignite when exposed to flames such as a torch. A lot of creatures use Darkvision (Infared) to track heat patterns. You could have a drow scouting party following the PCs and they would have to lower or hide there heat signatures to escape. (Predator FTW).

These are just a few of the ideas i have. If you want more info or ideas lemme know

 

[Samloyal23]

You have to have good reason to go down into the bowels of the planet, maybe a mining project that leads to a nasty surprise by digging too deep. A mining operation can make a good base to go exploring from, a great excuse to use Craft and Profession skills, and a potential source of income for the party. There's no telling what you can dig up when you're following a vein of precious ore. Maybe there's a fantasy version of the Horta down there guarding eggs that look like gems...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

An earthquake could cause a fissure, suddenly exposing what was once a cavern a quarter of a mile underground, sealed and secure, to the open air.

What might happen if an earthquake fissure suddenly exposed a vein of gold or another precious item that was simultaneously discovered by nations above and below ground?

Dibs!

 

[Tomn]

So, I've run the first session. Also, I've figured out that Kineticist Psions are amazingly OP at times. We fought the doppleganger, then 2 Ankhegs (sniped by psion before they could even get close), then an Aranea that almost killed the psion while he was sleeping, then a Drow Raiding party containing three level 1 drow warriors and a level 3 drow cleric. All of this stuffs ended up in the party leveling to 4th (and almost dying a few times, but that just makes it interesting). Oh, and Meepo gained his first level in a character class (though I'm not sure what it should be, yet).

Drow use other races as slaves. This brings goblins, kobolds (perhaps a friend of Meepo's PLOT HOOOK!!), and other lesser races into the mix at a good CR.

New (additional) Plot Hook! Meepo gets kidnapped, and we have to get him back! Excellent!

Sadly, the mining project stuff won't work; the PCs have to get the apple back before the main villain (called Nem) manages to get it to the Matron of her clan. So, there's a bit of a rush. Luckily, the druid can track, so i don't have to railroad them or anything just so they have a chance. What I'm looking for is more ideas as to interesting one-time encounters and cool locations to throw in without having too much effect on the overall plot. Thanks for the great ideas, and I hope that more are on the way!

Also, I'm not sure how I'm going to level Meepo. I want him to eventually become a Beast Heart Adept (he can become a true keeper of dragons!) but I'm not sure what he should do before then. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Samloyal23]

The adventurers could find a well-hidden, untapped vein of adamant and come back to it when the mission is over, leaving traps around it to keep others away from it. The drow and duergars would drool over a fresh motherlode, so the adventurers would have to cleverly hide their operation and keep it under wraps until they had time to fully exploit the new resource...

 

[tankiller]

So, I've run the first session. Also, I've figured out that Kineticist Psions are amazingly OP at times. We fought the doppleganger, then 2 Ankhegs (sniped by psion before they could even get close), then an Aranea that almost killed the psion while he was sleeping, then a Drow Raiding party containing three level 1 drow warriors and a level 3 drow cleric. All of this stuffs ended up in the party leveling to 4th (and almost dying a few times, but that just makes it interesting). Oh, and Meepo gained his first level in a character class (though I'm not sure what it should be, yet).

New (additional) Plot Hook! Meepo gets kidnapped, and we have to get him back! Excellent!

Sadly, the mining project stuff won't work; the PCs have to get the apple back before the main villain (called Nem) manages to get it to the Matron of her clan. So, there's a bit of a rush. Luckily, the druid can track, so i don't have to railroad them or anything just so they have a chance. What I'm looking for is more ideas as to interesting one-time encounters and cool locations to throw in without having too much effect on the overall plot. Thanks for the great ideas, and I hope that more are on the way!

Also, I'm not sure how I'm going to level Meepo. I want him to eventually become a Beast Heart Adept (he can become a true keeper of dragons!) but I'm not sure what he should do before then. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

When my party got meepo we decided that because everyone loved him he must be crazy charismatic so we gave him scorceror lvs to fit his charisma and it's his favored class so it just felt right.

Also to keep him from out shining other party members the DM let's the party have a say in his spells list and what he cast during combate.

Good luck with the choice.

 

[Samloyal23]

Interesting article about kobolds in folkore. I think there is a lot of roleplaying gold to be mined here...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Perhaps make Meepo a Dragonfire Adept?