D&D 5E OotA: Chapter 15 Menzoberranzan (repost)

[CapnZapp]

Dug up from Google's cached content, so please excuse any wonkiness in formatting.

Highlights from my reading of the Menzoberranzan chapter:

“Nevertheless, business has been booming as drow celebrate the deaths of rivals.” (Duthcloim)
“Characters can see viscid black goo oozing from the mushroom's stalk.” (Kyorbblivvin)
“Dozens of naked and chained slaves form the parade, their bodies painted with dyes and perfumes.” (Qu'ellarz'orl)

So I definitely want to weave in reasons for the party to visit at least those three locations. And to do so in a way that doesn't shortcircuit social interaction, the party should (look like) Drow.

In addition, the mental image of the heroes smuggling coffins into an inn has stuck in my head.

All in all, have the party do dubious business in the city, not only to showcase its encounters, but also to ensure the Bregan D'aerthe spy (in Duthcloim and elsewhere, see page 195) gets a chance at noticing and intercepting them.

It began when I first read the Menzoberranzan chapter of Out of the Abyss (chapter 15 The City of Spiders). I was quickly struck by how much lovable detail that had been poured into this chapter, in stark contrast to the rather sparse chapters around it.

But there is no reason for the party to ever experience any of it!

Not only are there no reasons given to extend the stay in the city, the adventure also assumes the heroes will be travelling under disguise or otherwise desperately wanting to minimize any contact with the city and its inhabitants!

All in all, the chapter is, if played straight, destined to be a huge waste: most parties of level 13 or thereabouts will be able to minimize the number of encounters if they don't skip the city entirely!

And while that is fine if you treat the quest for Gromph's Grimoire like a sideshow, it completely throws all that detail to the side.

And so I thought of an alternative, that hopefully makes the chapter more of a centrepiece of the campaign than something the players desperately want to skip:

What if the characters are transmogrified into Drow so they don't have to skulk and hide and avoid everything? What if the quest to gain entrance to the Sorcere was made into a major accomplishment instead of merely “Vizeran's allies lets you inside”?

One thing led to another and here we are, with a complete suggested expansion of the chapter!

 

[CapnZapp]

The background is that the party has successfully collected all the ritual components.

Now they need to place the Dark Heart in Menzoberranzan, where Demogorgon first appeared. (This requirement is, just like the book says, something Vizeran has made up, but he doesn't tell them that). It appeared in the Clawrift (page 201), by the way.

They also need to get Gromph's grimoire back to Vizeran. (I'm running with the interpretation that avoids the heroes having to make two trips to the spider city; hence, Vizeran was able to complete the creation of the Dark Heart without the grimoire. He still needs it to cast the ritual)

To that end, he sends along his apprentice Grin Ousstyl – when they get the grimoire, Grin can return it to Gromph. (He intends to take the secret passageway back to Araj on the way back – he doesn't reveal it to the party on the way to the city). To get inside Sorcere, they need a set of magic keys, and to do so they need to avoid detection as non-drow.

Vizeran tells the party the rules of the great city, including the death penalty on impersonating drow, and that non-drow are forbidden in the Tier Breche city quarter. Simple illusions are of course detected (you never know who has True Sight in a deeply magical city), and even polymorphed non-drow aren't certain to pass by the guards and wards. He also mentions how teleportation has been shut down. As for divinations, I have a Cleric player that likes divination spells, so I plan to not shut them down but instead add a spellcasting check (DC 10 + spell level) – failure means the recipient is made aware he is divined upon and by whom. This retains their use while still heavily discouraging their use, I think.

As an alternative to an all-out assault on the most heavily protected parts of the Drow capital, Vizeran takes them to his laboratory where he shows the party a number of large glass tubes. Inside each one there is a nude and apparently unconscious humanoid. They are all drow, they're all alive and unharmed, and as Vizeran explains: there's one priestess, one mage, one rogue and a number of skilled guards. If anybody asks how he managed to collect so many so fast, he visibly beams.

Now, Vizeran proposes that he casts a special body transfer ritual that works a bit like the Magic Jar spell. The main difference is that while you do bring along your mental faculties (your memories and your “self”), you do not replace the class features of the body. This is because the way Magic Jar works its results doesn't really “work” for humanoid targets – all humanoids of comparable Hit Dice become very similar when possessed, since most distinguishing powers of humanoids come from class levels, not “monster levels”. In short: you is still you, whether you are a human or elf or dwarf. Since all my choices are drow, I don't just want the players to play their old characters in new bodies which is what Magic Jar would have led to (if I wanted that, I could simply have Vizeran polymorph them) – I want the player that selects, say, the “drow mage” to really play a wizard, and not just his regular class in a weakling body! Pro tip: Don't choose the mage body if you have a low Intelligence!

One important reason for taking on “new” characters is that it allows me to run the many and varied encounters as is, without having to upgrade them. By the book, most are boringly easy for my beefy level 13 party; but should be challenging to a party of Drow! (In my rough estimation, the Drow correspond to non-optimized level 10 characters or so; a pronounced downgrade in other words)

Also worth mentioning: the distance limitation of the regular Magic Jar spell isn't supposed to be a concern: they should not need to worry about staying close enough for any soul transfers to fail. Whether they leave their “jar” container with their original bodies or bring them along shouldn't be a concern either.

Essentially, the heroes consciousness will be transfered into these bodies, which will defeat any warding spells against non-drow. Once inside the Tier Breche, they can ideally complete their mission at their leisure, but as an added level of insurance, they should smuggle their real bodies into the city. If the drow-heroes need to abandon their mission, their consciousness should reappear in their original bodies, ready to defend Grin as he departs the city, or the Dark Heart's placement.

(In reality I expect Gromph's defenses to be too much for the drow bodies; so that they will need to return as their heroic selves to finish the job.)

To enable that, once they have the magical keys, Vizeran suggests they lower Sorcere's wards against non-Drow (for one hour, then the wards will reassert itself) before handling Gromph's sanctum. Of course, they might be itching to dump the Drow bodies and are free to do so, but Vizeran advises to use them for “scouting” out Gromph's defenses.

The drow are all of House Do'urden. If they aren't happy with that, Vizeran sheepishly opens a crate full of drow insignia of many houses (“I had a vindictive phase several hundred years ago”), letting them take their pick.

Ilmbreena the Drow Priestess of Lolth
Lar'ssysn the Drow Mage
Viertyrr the Drow Assassin
Akordril the Drow Elite Warrior
Mind'orl the Drow Elite Warrior
Wruzril the Drow Elite Warrior

Summary:

They swap bodies for one Drow Priestess of Lolth (MM129), one Drow Mage (MM129), one Drow Assassin (MM343) and as many Drow Elite Warriors (MM128) as needed. They need to accomplish two tasks before they enter Sorcere: 1) find somewhere to store their real bodies, and 2) get a set of Sorcere magic keys.

Suggested drow names: Ilmbreena, Lar'ssysn, Viertyrr, Akordril, Mind'orl and Wruzril, respectively.

Vizeran knows of a half-drow named Shintzi (page 196) that should have a safe storage area for their coffins. They should look for her in Eastmyr. When found she can bring them to Narbondel's Shadow. Have a Drow Captain stubbornly stand guard right outside the alley leading to the stables (the “smuggling coffins into an inn” scene).

The magical keys are needed to get inside Sorcere without setting off the alarms, and to disable those very alarms too. One set of keys will be with today's “Narbondel Mage” (the mage subbing for Gromph in the task of lightning Narbondel, page 198).

Vizeran says his contact will know which mage it will be for the upcoming day. They find Bhinuit the Drow at an outdoors party event in Duthcloim. He will tell them that the scheduled mage was killed during Demogorgon's attack and that this party is his rival's (setting up the “celebrate the deaths of rivals” scene) and that they instead need to find Elaughar, the Sorcere mage of House Barrison Del'Armgo.

Which is in the Qu'ellarz'orl district (setting up the journey through the Kyorbblivvin and the oozing mushroom; as well as the slave parade). Today's slave parade is... House Barrison Del'Armgo, and Elaughar is forced to attend. So their mission is to make a disturbance and get his magical keys (pickpocketing; murder-robbery; anything). They need to act now – when it is time for Elaughar to light Narbondel he will be under heavy escort.

The Bregan D'Arethe spy (one of them at least) should catch wind of the party's comings and goings (since there now is plenty to go on) and so that sets up the Jarlaxle meet.

Finally, have Lord Eravien relay a message (through a Sending): the Lord's Alliance spy Khalessa Draga can be found in the Dark Dominion (page 192). She will be wearing a Deathstool so they can recognize her, and the password is “purple”: when approaching her, add that word to your greeting. She knows of the Goblin Tunnel to Kyorbblivvin (also page 192).

 

[CapnZapp]

There was some discussion on how the players might react when Vizeran suggests they go undercover so deep they actually become Drow.

A few possible suggestions:

First off, not everybody needs to bodytransfer. Then, you should feel that you're at least somewhat in control over how long you want to stay drowified.

Meaning that, Vizeran could (if asked) give an outline of what opposition there is past the Tier Breche "entrance". That the "square" in front of the three buildings (Arach-Tinilith, Melee-Magthere and Sorcere) is crawling with bogeys is a given, though the point of the entire imdrowification is to essentially bypass all of that.

Then, inside Sorcere, there should only be moderate opposition between the infilitrators and the "shut down the guards and wards" lever. I'm thinking one pompous SS Drow that needs either to have his ass licked or his throat cut. And then a small monster guard, possibly a slave aranea or something (that concievably could be bribed to help out in return for a promise of many many dead drow...)