The Night Below - your experiences?

[Mark Hope]

First thread of a series on the younger classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is interesting to see how everyone's experiences compared and differed.

The Night Below

Synopsis: Kidnappings and disappearances lead the PCs to believe that a dark cult may be at work in the land. The trail leads into the Underdark, where it becomes clear that mightier forces than mere cultists are at work. A masterplan of the aboleth draws the characters into the depths, encountering duergar, mind flayers, kuo-toas and other deep denizens en route. Side treks involving trolls, a deep dragon and a tribe of lost elves add twists to the tale.

Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group?

(With thanks and a tip of the hat to Quasqueton for his ground-breaking series of classic adventure discussions.)

 

[Crothian]

I don't own it but I may have played it. We did a lot of things with the Underdark and it kind of all blends together.

 

[Lanefan]

I *think* I've played through some of this. The DM at the time was certainly basing a series of adventures off this box-set, but I don't know how many tweaks and changes he made. In any case, we played through two adventures - the first of which I remember nothing about; as for the second all I remember is getting our asses kicked by Trolls at every turn - after which the party split along alignment lines (half the party was good, the other half somewhat nasty), some players left for non-game-related reasons, and the campaign collapsed. I've no idea how much of the box-set was still waiting to be played.

The one thing that stands out is that when the campaign did end, I'd had enough of dealing with Trolls to last me many a year. Assuming those Trolls are part of the as-written adventure, some more variety in the opposing monsters would be a nice tweak for a DM to make.

Lanefan

 

[Mark Hope]

I chose to start with this one as it is often cited as a classic of the 2e era. But in addition to that, I also felt that it echoed D1 and D2 from the 1e days. It managed to combine deep freeform dungeoneering with a strong plot. I spent many months running this, but will save more extensive comments for further downthread (10 day-old son demanding dad's attention! ...)

 

[JoeGKushner]

Let's see...

Jeff: Human Paladin with Dragonslayer kit.
Tom: Halfling Guardian, 1st ed class updated to 2nd ed.
Angel: Priestess of god of bladesong. Used two swords.
Steve: Elf multi-class bladesinger kit
Nathan: Wizard

First part went very well.

Second part went okay.

Third part went to hell in a handbasket.

Players took way too much upon themselves and attacked the fiend delegation and the pit fiend/blaor (I forget which one), wiped them out. I think the priestess escaped but that was about it.

 

[Psion]

I started this campaign and had very high hopes for it. And I was enthused at the prospect of the kuo-toa city and book 3.

Book 1 went really well... a nice example of how to run an outdoor/investigative game.

But as for the rest of book 2 -- hated it. Atrocious. You get to plow through wave after wave of bad guys to get to the city. There is a path around them, but it's magically protected and you don't get to use it.

My players renamed it "Death by Perpetual Encounter."

I dug the Kuo-Toa city and book 3 enough that I ripped them out out replaced one section of the rod of seven parts adventure, which went pretty well. The, um, evil ally conundrum was cool, and there were some classic epic battle moments in the battle against the aboleth savants.

 

[DM_Jeff]

I have nothing but fond memories of running this classic from start to finish, with all the same players and characters.

I found a nondescript little valley in my home campaign world, and there was enough in the box set to fully flesh out the area. To this day, 10 years later, my players have war stories from this adventure and sit around on gatherings rehashing some of the famous combats and situations therein.

The first and second parts were ran pretty much straight out of the book. The third book wasn't so neat. It was simply not my player's cup of tea, and I saw that and headed it off at the pass. There was an entire section, (nearly half of the 3rd book) which involved a huge assault on a duergar city that was basically an ingredient for about 10 sessions of meaningless combat, so I simply cut the whole thing out.

The battlemaps included were great and added a lot to the combats. The NPCs on the surface world were well written and really helped move the plot and the character interests.

-DM Jeff

 

[an_idol_mind]

I bought the module when it first came out and loved it to death. Never, ever played beyond the Evils of Haranshire, though. Back then, I had a hard time keeping a campaign going. Every once in a while I scour eBay for a copy in good condition. The next time I start a new campaign, I plan to use that adventure.

 

[Psion]

There was an entire section, (nearly half of the 3rd book) which involved a huge assault on a duergar city that was basically an ingredient for about 10 sessions of meaningless combat, so I simply cut the whole thing out.

Are you thinking about the Derro city? That was in book 2.

 

[drscott46]

Whoa. I think this one was after my time, given the telltale black border in the cover shot. But it sounds interesting, especially given the highly variable quality of what was likely sitting next to it on the shelf at the time.

Interesting that it was released as setting-neutral, rather than associated somehow with the Forgotten Realms. Perhaps someone of the old-school persuasion was behind this?