got my Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (mild spoilers)

[Bad Paper]

Graz'zt is conniving. Drow are mean. What more do you need to know, really?

Since I'm currently running my party through the Harrowing, I'm a tad sick of demons and drow, so I won't go into too much detail here. I will tell you what the book touts: "224 pages, 50 major encounters, 14 new monsters, visits to 6 planar layers." It gives suggestions for paring this thing down to a half-length thing. You can smush the 9-12 adventure into separate 10th and 12th level adventures.

It's in that new encounter format, but I don't feel like it's bleeding too much dead space here.

I see some legacy items (not weapons) and suggestions to add a couple of legacy weapons. A few new spells, two prestige classes.

Hooks (ugh): drow incursion into farmsteads, you meet up in a tavern, or the church of Corellon Larethian is getting nervous about something. hmm.

OK, dinner time, ask questions if you have any.

 

[Nightfall]

Bad Paper,

Uhm what about Orcus making Graz'zt pay for his treachery? I mean I figured he'd involve...

 

[Tharen the Damned]

And what about Orcus making Lolth pay for housing this unspeakable other demon?

 

[delericho]

Hooks (ugh): drow incursion into farmsteads, you meet up in a tavern, or the church of Corellon Larethian is getting nervous about something. hmm.

OK, dinner time, ask questions if you have any.

I've got one: given the nature of the adventure itself, can you recommend a decent adventure hook?

Oh, and another one: Is there any advice on scaling it up for more powerful parties?

 

[Bad Paper]

I've got one: given the nature of the adventure itself, can you recommend a decent adventure hook?

Well, I haven't had the chance to read very much yet, but the main idea is that you have to somehow get the party to Sigil. If the party ignores the elephant in the room, you eventually have to use the church of Corellon Larethian to beg them to get their asses to Sigil. They meet a mysterious NPC there. I would give more details about that, but it's one of the core spoilers that I don't want to display in this thread.

The, uh, urgent issue that drives them to Sigil is a sudden increase in drow activity. Apparently Lolth has decided to pay attention to Oerth for a bit, and her church is infused with newfound zeal. Is she planning some sort of massive invasion? OMG send in the PCs!

There is a side quest to Ysgard (though this is one of those things easily pruned out to make it a shorter adventure). There are more than one foray into the Demonweb. They have to hit a few other levels of the Abyss, too: Rauwend, Shadowsky, and Voorz'zt.

Oh, and another one: Is there any advice on scaling it up for more powerful parties?

I would say any large concentration of demons would work. Just reading about Zelatar (Demon City, whew!), it looks like you can really milk this bit for imbuing the party's venture to Graz'zt's realm with some real terror. The text says you can play this part fast-paced (they run through the city, grab what they need, get the hell out), or slow-paced (they have to soak up one of the most dangerous city in the multiverse for a few days to figure out what they're doing there). The text mentions the slow version as being an opportunity for role-playing: "The characters have to bluff, forge, or bribe their way out of trouble." This seems like a great place to beef up and flex your RP. Early in the text it also mentions that the Sigil encounters resolve well with diplomacy and chitchat, so if you're into that thing, the cities are the place to put them.

So yeah, if you have a cocky 14th-level party, just force them to sweet-talk a hundred angry mariliths. Pound some humility into them real quick.

One thing I do when I glance at adventures is pay attention to monster types for the favored-enemy folks. Obviously, rangers will get the best mileage with Outsider(evil), slightly less with Outsider(chaotic). Humanoid(elf) will kill an awful lot of drow. Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, and even Plant(!) would be worth having. Not a lot of Giants in here [I like giants and am sad to see so few]. Paltry few Fey and Animals. Is Vermin a type? You'd get quite a bit with Vermin.

OK, gotta go to work.

 

[BOZ]

keep us posted.

 

[Obergnom]

As you are currently running the Harrowing, which I love and ran once, how does it compare to that adventure? I know they are of different level, and thats another concern of mine: Is the adventure believable or does the Demonweb seem a bit to tame? I really liked Vrocks as "random" encounters and stuff like that, the Demonweb felt really dangerous.

What about further plots emering from it? Once you killed an aspect of lolth, what else is there to top your adventuring carreer?

 

[Nightfall]

Kill Lolth again. And make sure Orcus destroys the Drow panethon forever!

 

[mattcolville]

Bad Paper-

I was hoping to use this module as the finale in a campaign in which the Drow have taken over a big chunk of the human lands. They're an occupying force, and the party is sent to topple their leadership structure. I don't mind doing some design work on the module to make it fit. Based on what you've read, will this work?

I had originally planned on using City of the Spider Queen, but updating that to 3.5 is more work than I want to do.

 

[Nightfall]

Matt and everyone,

I have a copy of Expedition. However I won't get to read it until some time tomorrow. (Stupid post office closes at 4 and I missed it today.) So hopefully not only Paper can answer, but myself as well.