4e Underdark Campaign

[Otterscrubber]

I have a group of 8th level PCs (5 of them) that are currently on a campaign to attack the underdark. I'm posting this thread in the hopes that I can get some good advice from better story-tellers than myself in making an engaging and ongoing campaign.

We ran the first 2 published adventures(ending with Thunderspire Labyrinth), after that I've decided to launch my own campaign and build on what is there. Basically our heroes are part of a larger mercenary company that is in turn part of a 5000 soldier(mostly human but with some elven and dwarven troops as well) strong invasion force intent on wiping out the underdark forces underneath the campaign surface world. My main goal is to take them from level 8 to around 15 or so with it culminating in the storming of a large Drow city who worships Tiamat. Along the way they will have to find some allies and resources for their army as well as take out other unfriendly cities that are vassals to the Drow.

The main army has established their base of operations in the 7 Pillared Hall from that module and their first job is to retake the Horned Hold from the published adventure. Our hero group is a specialized strike force for the mercenary group and have been ordered to scout out and provide intel on how to retake the hold.

I made sure the the entry to the hold has been bolstered by a new large iron wall that was dug and erected to prevent a large force from being able to just walk in and take the place. To that end I've had the heroes find a back way into the hold through some old mine shafts that were guarded by some underdark fey (not drow haha) who the heroes had to cajole into letting them pass. I let them fight there way through the back and have a minion slugfest jsut to see how many they could take out, it was a lot, along with taking out a war troll who was leading them. To make it interesting I had a small force of 50 warriors(their allies) attack the front gate while the heroes helped from within. Their allies would never have been able to get through the gate without someone on the inside helping them.

My problem now due to my lack of planning is that the heroes now have 50 warriors at their disposal and 2 more towers to take. How can I make it interesting for them? I had 2 more encounters slated, but I did not take into account that they would have a ton of NPCs to help out and I need to come up with a good way keep their 50 allies busy so they can finish the adventure as I've set it up or come up with something else interesting. Bad planning on my part I know but it is what it is now and I could use some advice on how to spice it up.

I thought about having a Doppleganger impersonate the lead PC and order them away or off on a wild goose-chase, but other than that not sure what to do with them. Thanks for any advice you may have.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Can anyone recommend a good Underdark supplement, other than the 3e one titled "Underdark"? I'm looking for a good campaign flowchart that will take my group from about 8th-15th level.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Eh, a few nice Illithids could just show up and enslave most of those 50 guys, lol. Maybe a bit more interesting is some monster force that shows up and just occupies them. Maybe it shows up right after the PCs sneak into one of these towers. They expect to pull basically the same trick they did before, but now their allies are occupied and the enemy in the tower is keeping them busy. Could get interesting. Underdark is nice, almost any kind of nasty thing can show up.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Woah, our campaign came to a crushing end in that place... (not the place to explain).

An idea for your 50 warriors is to make them have to cut off a force of duergar that are coming from the city that is some journey away. Could have a duergar slip by saying that the PCs stand no chance when their reinforcements arrive, or if they have a captive even easier. That way the force of 50 could be sent to head off the duergar reinforcements, leaving the Horned Hold for the PCs (or vice versa I guess, but I am betting you would prefer the PCs to deal with the part that is written up for you ).

I think it would be great to give the feeling that the Horned Hold is only an outpost (as described in the module)...this idea reinforces (hah, get it - sorry) that.

Cheers, C

 

[Evilhalfling]

the horned hold is a little small for 50 guys, esp if they are minions. I would treat them as human rabble with +3 AC, +1 damage for better arms and armor.
A theurge could take out 4-9 with each Area burst 1.

I support the idea of having them cut off a new force of duegar, and leave the horned hold itself to adventures. Unless you have added a new barracks wing there is not room for over 30 duegar anyway.

 

[Gilladian]

Do not listen to anything AbdulAlhazred suggests.... he is an evil DM and will simply lead you down the road paved with good intentions (or so your PCs will claim)...

(Hi, big brother!

And for an actual, useful, suggestion - how about a cave in or landslide or some other disaster that cuts the PC's off from their 50 allies? It could be triggered by a last ditch effort of the defenders in one hidden room that nobody knew about until now.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Ok, got it handled Had the 50 allies help take out one part of the Hold, where I did some handwaving and said that it had been expanded. This left the PCs to take the main tower. One of my PCs died in this attempt, got forced off the bridge by a medusa with a force bow I had never killed a PC before, but led to a good next adventure as they went to get his corpse.

Anyways, Now I wanted to share a little bit about my campaign and see about getting some advice. My PCs are part of a mercenary company called the 13th Legion (Stolen blatantly from the Rome HBO series ) Here is a little backstory on the 13th Legion:

Arkhosian Empire

The southern continent that the campaign takes place in was once in the main control of the Arkhosian Empire, the Dragonborn Empire that was in control of a huge geograhpic, economic and magical superpower. The main capitol of the Arkhosian Empire was far to the west of the current lands the heroes live in and has not been visited in a long time. Although the Empire was run by several Dragonborn Kings who worked together, each King had an advisor in the form of an ancient Dragon. At first these advisors were simply that, advisors to the kings who had the good of the empire at heart. Over time though these advisors would exert more and more control against their rivals within and without the empire. The was demonstrated in the extreme during the war with the Bael'Turah Empire across the Great Sea to the north. There were 12 great kings, each with their own Legion charged with protecting the empire as a whole. These 12 legions were made up almost entirely of Dragonborn soldiers. Among the non-dragonborn lands who were being governed another legion was formed and made up of the other races; mostly human, dwarf and elf but also with halflings and a smattering of other races. This 13th Legion earned much respect for it's bravery and versatility and saw a lot of action in the war with Bael Turath.

During the course of the war the lands were devastated and the Legions were sent off to wage war across the Great Sea. The details have been lost but the Great War ended without a clear victor and the lands governed by both empires were left to fend for themselves amid the wreckage as both Tiefling and Dragonborn virtually wiped each other out while at the same time unleashing curses, diseases, demons and undead to plague the lands. At this time a great fog arose across the Great Sea, any ships entering into this fog were never heard from again. It is unknown why as the technology for great ship building has also been lost and exploration attempts have not even been possible for some time. - 100 years ago

Remnant Republic

Without the Arkhosian Empire the major races were left to govern themselves and in turn created the Remnant Republic whose chief pricipals were the Humans, Dwarves and Elves. Although affected by the Great War, these races had enough resources to prosper on their own and quickly setup their own well protected borders and things look good for some time. The 13th Legion became the standing army of this new republic and was able to fend off the many evils, chief among them a race of snake men who came from the west, from the old Capitol of the Empire. Order began to re-assert itself and things were going well until one of the Dragon Advisors came back in the form of a draco-lich and tried to re-assert it's leadership over the Remnant Republic and begin anew. The people at this time had enough of draconic rulership and fought back, hard. The Draco-lich raised an army from the Underdark and attacked. When all was said and done the Draco-lich was slain, but the war had been lost and the races of the underdark pillaged and burned what was left of the Remnant Repbulic, slain it's greatest leader (Dain Lightstone, Dwarven Paladin of Moradin) and then retreated back to the Underdark with their loot.

Since this last defeat the 13th Legion has devolved into a mercenary band that has made token efforts to keep the peace, but tries to get paid when it does so. Not so much out of greed as necessity. This sits well with some of the legion but not so well with others. -75 years ago

City States

The current political situation has the Elves, Dwarves and Humans who each rule their own chunks of land from a capitol city. Each of the races controls a portion of land about a days ride from each, but outside that any protection or law is not guaranteed. Although there is diplomatic relations, it is limited to protecting the trade routes between each of these capitols and each has been handling it's own affairs, until the recent attacks from across the Great Sea. This has all the races concerned and a new military alliance has sprung up, but it has been tenuous at best and it is unclear where these enemies came from. It has been decided though that a more aggressive stance needs to be taken and old hatred of the Drow and other Underdark races has been stoked in order to help purge them from the list of things to worry about. The 13th Legion has been engaged in this and there is considerable excitement in this new mission as many would like to have their paybacks for the defeats from 75 years earlier.

They are currently being led into the Underdark (they are level 9 at this point), where I plan to have them explore the underdark. The main goal is for them to evntually conquer the Drow in the Underdark and are led by Prince, who is a lvl 15 warlord. They are the vanguard of a 5000 strong army ( if you see my other thread on mass combat suggestoins this is mentioned there) and they are in charge of 1) gathering intel on forces that will oppose them between the surface and the Drow city 2) Finding the route to the Drow City 3) locating resources for the army on it's journey 4) Recruit any potential allies to aid in this conflict and 5) Set up diplomatic relations with potential neutral races for trade or shelter.

This Prince has ulterior motives for this expedition. 1) He wants to make a name for himself 2) Get some riches under his belt 3) use both 1 and 2 to become the King of the surface realms when he returns from his triumphant extermination of the Drow who did such damage 75 years earlier. The PCs will be integral in this, but he is a powerful man who will not want the PC to get too powerful without swearing loyalty directly to him, so there may be some conflict there as the PCs level. I"m aiming to have the Underdark mission on my campaign take the PCs to 15th level or so.

What I need help on is :

1) What to do with the PCs from level 15-20 and
2) Epic?

I was thinking of having them spend levels 15-20 going to the West of the campaign world, to the previous seat of Arkhosian Empire. Here they would find the Draco-lich who was being resurrected by the twisted remenants of the Arkosian Empire. These would be Yuan-Ti. They will serve the Draco-lich who in turn is a servant of Tiamat, who is wanting the PCs to unwittingly do something for it. The "mist" that is blocking the North Sea was set up as a last gasp of the Arkohsian Empire to protect the Southern Continent from the war. I was thinking that the Draco-lich would lead the heroes there and trick them into destroying some artifact that is keeping the mist active, under the impression that the artifact is the source of the Draco liches power or some such thing.

After that, the heroes should be into Epic, and I'd like to have the Northern Continent open up to them and have it be very plane heavy travelling and perhaps find out the war is still raging over there.

I'm up for any suggestions other might have, thanks

 

[Thaed]

Campaign Ideas

I appologize in advance for not reading all of the postings.


I am running a very similar game now. I am using the City State of the Invincible Overlord as a foundation of the campaign. www.judgesguild.com


Check out P2 Demon Queen's Enclave. Levels 14 - 17. Underdark Drow City. I'm sure you could modify it to your campaign.

Epic levels call for epic adventures. Look at something that will lead the party to other planes. Something that will involve them saving the entire world and not just their neck of the woods.

If they have a bunch of troops, you need a mass combat system. If you don't already have one, I recommend the system from Legends of the Five Rings RPG. It is the best.

Simple chart. It allows the PCs to perform heroic acts that directly affect the battle. The battle swirls around them, the NPCs die or live based on the outcome of the battle as decided by the PCs. The number that die is chosen by the GM.

Heroic opportunities let the PCs face the enemy champion one on one, capture the enemy standard, breach the gate to let the troops in, destroy the bridge before the enemy crosses it, or any ideas you have to throw in. Keeps the burden of dealing with the troops out of your way.

Sounds like your game is going well. Good luck.