Looking for some ideas for Plane of Shadow

[Narfellus]

Return to the Tomb of Horrors had a badass monster i think was called the dreamweaver (i think). It's been reprinted somewhere, but i forget. Sorry, i'm not being too useful here. Anyway, it's this spider-thing that is at the center of a tower, and there are shadow-webs all along the way. Players have to force/cut/burn there way in, but after a while the shadowebs rebuild behind them, trapping them inside (they might not even know it). I always thought that was cool. PC's are terrified of fighting enemies they can't see very well.

 

[Storyteller01]

Yes, as a matter of fact, the "Shadow Ranger" is going to guide them by skirting through tangent points with other planes, sort of like "Shadow Walking" from the Amber series. There will be a force that is trying to steer them into bad places (one of the BBEGs). I already plan to have them enter an underground area and fight some obsidian Minotaurs, a grove where there are evil Treants, etc.

So, yes, I am quite wide open, I was just looking for some more inspiration.

What kind of feel do you want for your adventure? Horror as in 'Hitchcock' or as in 'Pitch Black'?

You could introduce the Kythons from the Book of Vile Darkness. Very 'Alien' in build, and the nest can be built on (if you want them to face the VERY nasty leaders) or next to (if you want to keep the power level lower) the groups next shadowjump point. I think they can be found in just about any reasonable environment.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

One of the adventure seeds in A Swarm of Stirges has an ashmalkin (Unseelie stirge-riding fey) necromancer building an army in the Plane of Shadow version of a city, ready to slip them across the boundary into the material plane & destroy the city (to fulfill a bargain he's made with an evil god, IIRC).

Your party wouldn't be a match for the wizard in the book (or any mastermind who could pull off such a scheme), but they could tangle with some of his cooler invasion forces, like a vampiric blood bloat leading a squad of hollow husks. If they escape with their lives, it could lend some extra urgency to their quest to get back home -- will they return in time to warn the unaware defenders of the city? They could also try to sneak past the hosts of the necromancer's army and use the gates he already has prepared.

 

[Krypter]

They'd definitely meet a grue.

Maybe this short article on the plane of shadow could help:
http://www.planewalker.com/portals/entry.php?intEntryID=3454


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[Alzrius]

Return to the Tomb of Horrors had a badass monster i think was called the dreamweaver (i think). It's been reprinted somewhere, but i forget. Sorry, i'm not being too useful here. Anyway, it's this spider-thing that is at the center of a tower, and there are shadow-webs all along the way. Players have to force/cut/burn there way in, but after a while the shadowebs rebuild behind them, trapping them inside (they might not even know it). I always thought that was cool. PC's are terrified of fighting enemies they can't see very well.

A darkweaver; they have been reprinted in the 3E Fiend Folio.

Also, check out Dragon #322 for several great articles on the Shadow Plane, including Erebus, an ancient deity who lives here, and a city on the plane.

 

[grodog]

A 100-page section of Gary Gygax's novel City of Hawks is the best published source on Gary's conception of Shadowland.

Hmmm, I might have to contest that with the shadowy and ruined Tanelorn in which Elric and Rakhir adventure in Moorcock's Elric saga.

Another useful source for ideas about shadow stuff includes a bunch of spells Relics & Rituals #1 (d20 content based on an article I wrote for White Wolf magazine #11). I used those, and a bunch of spells not published in either source, to create a shade bard for one of my college Greyhawk campaigns (shadow magics replaced his druidical spells).

There's also a bunch of shadow-related magics in the 3e FR books, all related to the goddess Shar and the shadow weave.