Stormborn
Explorer
Started a new campaign recently on a homebrewed world called Mosaic. In short the world is made of pieces of other worlds that are mysteriously transported to their new planet. Some pieces have been there for ages unknown (to the point that they think they are native, but obviously not everyone can be right) and some only for a few years. Each area also has what amounts to a teleportation gate network to facilitate travel from one region to the next, but beyond the waystone itself normal travel is needed. The main reason for this was to allow me to run a wide variety of adventures and not worry overly much about travel time or logical consitancies of any given setting/world.
The PCs are brought together when it is discovered that their mentors are missing. Each belong to, for lack of a better term, an explorer's club which finances itself by selling maps and diagrams of the locations it explores. Each PC was given bonus skill points in ceratin permanent skills to reflect their additional training.
The playes were encouraged to try something new in terms of races and classes, and we have a fairly ecceltic mix, having just reached 3rd level:
Changeling bard 1/beguiler 2 (something of a problem child for the group - player is considering replacing with a rogue/Arcana Unearthed Iron Witch and homebrewed race and next opportunity)
Glimmerfolk (Dragon Compendium) Warlock 3
Tauren (somewhat modified from WoW RPG) Druid 3
Homebrew race Warblade 3
So far the PCs have had a fairly generic fetch quest into a swamp and are in the midst of travelling through a jungle to an ancient stone griffen/temple (at the behest of what is going to turn out to be an evil Binder). I have ideas for some other areas, but so far the campaing hasnt really caught my imagination the way it did in the early planning stages.
Now one of the things this group has never really done is an extensive underdark campaign and I am considering moving in that direction (as I never have established where the mentors have gone or what happened to them its possible that answers might lie down there).
My basic outline right now would be:
-travel to norse area following up on lead about mentors (I have parts of this adventure already plotted in my head - putting the PCs in the middle of a Werebear/Werewolf fight)
-enter a cavern leading to the underdark there (or after that adventure elsewhere)
-come to shore of a Sunless Sea and travel from there to a rumored underdark city (inspired by the excellent Sunless Sea thread that I will have to find the link for later)
- adventure in the city while gathering clues about mentors, getting enough evidence that they have come this way fairly quickly to keep them encouraged (I may suggest to the beguiler/bard to hold on to her PC as she should be able to shine better in this segment)
- various adventure locales - lava filled tunnels, mushroom forests, stalagtite prisons, etc.
- eventually leading to a mindflayer enclave where not only the fate of their mentors but the origins of the Mosaic world will be revealed.
So, my questions:
1) Given the PCs, is an extended journey into the underdark a problem? I am particularlly concerned about the moon worshipping druid and the fact that my players tend to worry more about character development than
2) Any ideas about making this work well? Books, adventures (I generally do not like running pregen adventures, but i have no problems stealing from them), etc?
3) I have lots of WotC books (not really any FR other than the FRCS) and am looking to use them in an extended (at least into the mid to late teen levels) campaign that might be our last significant 3.x game. How can I use them in an underdark game? Variety is the theme of this game afterall.
The PCs are brought together when it is discovered that their mentors are missing. Each belong to, for lack of a better term, an explorer's club which finances itself by selling maps and diagrams of the locations it explores. Each PC was given bonus skill points in ceratin permanent skills to reflect their additional training.
The playes were encouraged to try something new in terms of races and classes, and we have a fairly ecceltic mix, having just reached 3rd level:
Changeling bard 1/beguiler 2 (something of a problem child for the group - player is considering replacing with a rogue/Arcana Unearthed Iron Witch and homebrewed race and next opportunity)
Glimmerfolk (Dragon Compendium) Warlock 3
Tauren (somewhat modified from WoW RPG) Druid 3
Homebrew race Warblade 3
So far the PCs have had a fairly generic fetch quest into a swamp and are in the midst of travelling through a jungle to an ancient stone griffen/temple (at the behest of what is going to turn out to be an evil Binder). I have ideas for some other areas, but so far the campaing hasnt really caught my imagination the way it did in the early planning stages.
Now one of the things this group has never really done is an extensive underdark campaign and I am considering moving in that direction (as I never have established where the mentors have gone or what happened to them its possible that answers might lie down there).
My basic outline right now would be:
-travel to norse area following up on lead about mentors (I have parts of this adventure already plotted in my head - putting the PCs in the middle of a Werebear/Werewolf fight)
-enter a cavern leading to the underdark there (or after that adventure elsewhere)
-come to shore of a Sunless Sea and travel from there to a rumored underdark city (inspired by the excellent Sunless Sea thread that I will have to find the link for later)
- adventure in the city while gathering clues about mentors, getting enough evidence that they have come this way fairly quickly to keep them encouraged (I may suggest to the beguiler/bard to hold on to her PC as she should be able to shine better in this segment)
- various adventure locales - lava filled tunnels, mushroom forests, stalagtite prisons, etc.
- eventually leading to a mindflayer enclave where not only the fate of their mentors but the origins of the Mosaic world will be revealed.
So, my questions:
1) Given the PCs, is an extended journey into the underdark a problem? I am particularlly concerned about the moon worshipping druid and the fact that my players tend to worry more about character development than
2) Any ideas about making this work well? Books, adventures (I generally do not like running pregen adventures, but i have no problems stealing from them), etc?
3) I have lots of WotC books (not really any FR other than the FRCS) and am looking to use them in an extended (at least into the mid to late teen levels) campaign that might be our last significant 3.x game. How can I use them in an underdark game? Variety is the theme of this game afterall.
