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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gilladian" data-source="post: 5030035" data-attributes="member: 2093">Hmmm.... this sounds fun. Instead of having them "play out" all the hiring, exploring, reaching the underdark, try starting the game "in media res" with them fighting some awful but not too deadly monsters (giant spiders, oozes?). When the fight's over, give them a quick "how DID we get into this?" recap. Give them an urgent mission to find something - a treasure that is being sought by other adventurers for nefarious reasons, a cure for a dread disease affecting someone they love, etc...If you have time, pregen characters would be better for this, as you can tighten up the backgrounds. If not possible, at least insist that they all create their backgrounds from a pool of facts (they've known each other for x months, they're all or most all part of a single organization, or similar, and they all have similar alignments/outlooks). Personally, I'd make them all be from a single hometown, and say that the folk of the town have been ravaged for years with a recurring plague. The cure is known to be a rare, expensive fungus that only grows deep in certain caves in the Underdark. Unfortunately, this same fungus is also very popular as a cuisine item among wealthy people, who don't care about a single small town's troubles.Thus the PCs are struggling to either find the fungus, or find the deepearth market where they can purchase it, before their rivals get there. And there are forces that want to keep them away, for their own reasons (privacy, greed, hatred of surface dwellers, etc...).  So the PCs must hurry, and must fight, but in the end want to make "peace" with the keepers of the fungus.Unfortunately, perhaps the fungus grows among other plants, or is sold by someone who also makes preparations that are hallucinogenic and addictive. So failure to gather correctly, or to purchase the correct product, could result in addiction and insanity.I'm afraid I can't help suggest actual foes because I don't DM 4e...</blockquote>

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