Help with underwater encounters

[Shallown]

In a few sessions my group will be heading underwater in the campaign so I wanted your Ideas for underwater encounters.
More becuase I wanted to do something different and all of you generate much different ideas than I, so I figured some variety wouldn't hurt.

Group should be by then

Elven Bard(monte)3/Fighter3/Bladesinger 3
Human Ranger3/fighter4/windrider2 With a Half silver dragon wolf mount
Dwarven Evoker 8th
Human Cleric 8th/exorcist1 Has family/healing domains
Dwarven Fighter 9th Charging/two handed weapon focus.
Human Rogue6/fighter3

They will know by the time they get there that they will need to go underwater so will have some opportunity to purchase/make items to aid in this endeavor. Distance from land and depth not determined as of yet.

I am looking for fairly independent encounters or perhaps 2-3 combat encounters that flow together. I plan for this part to be a full session or so. Session being 6-8 hours.

Thanks Guys

Later

 

[shadowlight]

I'm a fan of PCs vs. Nature. Storms, tital waves, magma flows, etc. might be interesting.

Also, underwarter antimagic fields (or dispel magic) are always fun (and reward the fighter who took 10 ranks in swim).

 

[caudor]

As a stand-alone encounter, I envision a sunken ship...tipped on its side and shrouded in shadows.

What horror lies within? Perhaps something that will make a player happy about bumping up those swim ranks. Or maybe it is actually something harmless, but creepy enough to set a good tone for what is to come later.

I'll leave the contents to your imaginiation (or for other to comment on), but I bet a sunken ship would be hard for a party to ignore.

 

[Shallown]

ShadowLight - I was planning on giving them a storm while they were getting to the site of the place they need to go. It is buried at the bottom of the ocean.

Caudor - its a good Idea but hey would never fall for it. They are a little too paranoid of me as a GM. Wonder why. However the image of the ship lying there and Shadows coming out after them would sort of cool. Undead rising from the sea and all.

I forgot to mention What books I have available. MM, MMII, Monsters of Faerun, Tome of Horrors and Book of Vile darkness.

Thanks again and keep them Ideas coming.

later

 

[Aeolius]

Take a gander at the background for my undersea game, at:

http://www.lobi.com/bpaa/background/

I expand upon several aquatic terrains which might be of interest to you.

 

[Kilmore]

I can't help but think of freezing them into a big iceberg. Not sure how you'd do that, probably a new spell.

 

[Larry Fitz]

Underwater adventuring? I strongly urge you to get a copy of LI's Broadsides! book. It covers all sorts of underwater adventuring rules, including rules for water pressure and temperature effects for those REALLY deep encounters. It also has a few generic encounters in it that you could find useful.

As to ways to spice it up a bit, consider two different cultures of Merfolk (with character templates) fighting each other in a war of evenly matched sides. The PC's could literally be the difference in determining which side wins. To make this really interesting have them fighting over some necessary but finite resource, with neither side actually being evil, but give them definite cultural differences for the players to decide which side to be on, or perhaps yor PC's will find a way to mediate a peace and become providers of some alternative resource to both sides...

..Or just throw some big honkin monsters at them....

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

One word

Constructs

 

[shadowlight]

How about water elementals? Underwater they'd probably be a lot more scary - invisible? faster? different attack options (like constrict)?

I could imagine an underwater shrine or temple that includes a gate to the elemental plane of water. Could be some Elementalist worshipers....

 

[AngelTears]

Underwtare encounters

You could have an underwater army of undead marching towards a city.

A sunken city, long forgotten, of some edlrich race.

You discover a city covered in a bubble of air. Who are these people living in the bottom of the sea? You could have them as anything from a complex scientific race to an underwater colony of mages.

The Mermen empire, you have heard of this race but finally meet them. Hard bargainers, and being a race very close to elves, in all except temperment.

The ship garveyard. Many ships have sunk here and strange things lurk under the shadows. A ghost of a child seems to be darting around trying to look for something...

You see a strange device that looks like a metal fish moving through the waves. A closer peek reveals...

A white rush is coming towards you, it is a white ship, with tatterred sails. A lone woman is one the deck looking with hollow eyes forward. You brace for the inevtibale impact, and you simply pass through the ship as if it were made of mist, or as if you were a ghost.

You meet other travelers like you, looking funny with magical masks as they pass you by.

You see a great squid attacking giant jellyfish. The jellyfish are emanating strange flickers of light...

A kraken the size of three ships passes you by. Feeling it's water pressure blow against you not uncomfertably.

I think one of the major things you should describe to he players is the alieness of being underwater. Of being trespassers in a domain that by it's very nature defies humans and their interference.

There is a very old book I use called Creature Crucible which talked about sea creatures.

-Angel Tears