Underdark Campaign Brainstorm Session!

MortalPlague

Adventurer
My current campaign is taking an Underdark turn next session (assuming the players follow the hooks). I picked up the Underdark book, which had some excellent information in there, and now I'm trying to flesh out my specific Underdark adventure. Broadly speaking, an ex-pirate turned Lord is going to hire the group to go to a drow city and procure a rare and deadly poison for him. How they get it is entirely up to them... all a part of the fun.

The first step is getting to the Underdark in the first place. I've decided to have an entrance at the bottom of an old, abandoned mine. This mine isn't entirely abandoned, however; it has new inhabitants. The upper levels have been taken over by a group of orc bandits, joined by a pair of medusas. I haven't decided yet whether I want to put one of the medusas in the leader's chair, or simply have them be unexpected allies.

The lower levels of the mine are more interesting... most of the inhabitants here are oozes, carrion crawlers, and vermin. But I wanted to put a single powerful threat here that would keep the orcs from venturing down, but also keep the Underdark from coming up. Currently, I've penciled in a crippled mind flayer; he lost his leg below the knee to a hook horror, and just managed to hobble into the mine's lower levels from the Underdark below. He's made a lair for himself down there, but he's trapped; he can't take on the orcs on his own, but the Underdark below would surely kill him. Depending how the players approach things, he might wind up being a dangerous opponent, or a cautious friend.

Thoughts?

Oh yes, my group is level 12, consisting of a rogue, a paladin/cleric, an avenger, and a ranger.
 
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You know what might be cool...
...What if one of the Medusas has some sort of ritual to animate statues?
First she petrified the orcs, then she transformed them into living stone. Maybe the orcs went through this willingly?

The crippled mindflayer...
...What if he still has nightmares about that hook horror? Maybe he's afraid it will come back to finish the job?
What if his fear, amplified by his psychic powers, has manifested itself as a phantasmal hook horror of some sort?
 

I would use an adult purple dragon (level 13 solo controller, raise defenses and attack rolls by 2 to make it lvl 15) who has wrangled a group of drow as followers and have started a struggle for power inside the drow society.
 

...What if he still has nightmares about that hook horror? Maybe he's afraid it will come back to finish the job?
What if his fear, amplified by his psychic powers, has manifested itself as a phantasmal hook horror of some sort?

I like that a lot. That's a fantastic idea... :D

I would use an adult purple dragon (level 13 solo controller, raise defenses and attack rolls by 2 to make it lvl 15) who has wrangled a group of drow as followers and have started a struggle for power inside the drow society.

I just used a dragon in my game, so I'm reluctant to pit my players against another one so soon. Maybe deeper in the Underdark, though...
 

I like that a lot. That's a fantastic idea... :D

For an extra detail...

Maybe the mindflayer actually managed to hack off one of the hook horrors claws and is now using it as a peg-leg. He thinks this phantom hook-horror is going to return and take its claw back.
Of course the actual hook horror in question is long dead. It bled to death from its stump. Perhaps the party finds its skeleton at some point. Maybe if they bring the skeleton to the mindflayer, they can put his mind at ease...
...or maybe the skeleton springs to life instead...
 

Maybe if they bring the skeleton to the mindflayer, they can put his mind at ease...

Too much of a long term quest... I'd like to see the players pass through the mine and venture into the Underdark. I think I'm going to give him a wooden peg leg (I'm a softie for the pirate flavor), but I will definitely have a psychic hook horror roaming the mine.

On that note... what to do with a psychic hook horror? Deal sanity damage? :P

Also, I'd really like the orc camp to be a living, breathing entity... Gotta figure out a few interesting sidenotes to what will essentially be a combat encounter or two.
 

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