Underdark?

[Steel_Wind]

I think "Cavernscape" would be the environment title of choice. While that certainly includes the Underdark, it strips the implied dominance of Drow from the concept and makes it a lot more a book about environment - and a lot less a book about Drow.

Seeing as we have a 3.5 Drow book on the way from WotC in a few months, Cavernscape would seem a better approach.

 

[Celebrim]

I don't consider any of the recent source books to be all that great.

Full confession here, I'm a caver - member of the National Speological Society. I've been in the real 'Underdark'. I probably have to high of standards. But none of the D&D works on the underdark capture for me the wonder (or danger) of cave passage or the sense of infinite adventure that's found in something like Verne's 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. The underdark should be alien, fantastic, and harsh. Not harsh just because everything roaming around in it is deadly, but rather everything roaming around in it is deadly because its so harsh. I'd like to see an underdark where everything down there on is the verge of starvation, and where wars are fought over patches of edible mold and mushrooms and caverns that allow thier cultivation. I'd like to see a Drow with a truly chaotic society, say something more like the culture of nomadic lion prides, than the hyper organized lawful predictable culture they've come to have. I'd like to see an underdark of alien wonders, or at least one which seems to be actually in three dimensions.

Nothing truly satisfies, but I don't think you could do much better for inspiration than the short description of the 'Deep Earth' in the 1st edition Dungeoneer's Survival guide.

 

[GlassJaw]

City of the Spider Queen as mentioned before.

I'm a player in an Underdark campaign right and we've played through these:

The Vault of Larin Karr - Necromancer Games/Sword & Sorcery
Queen of Lies - Sword & Sorcery

 

[Land Outcast]

As for modules... one of the original 3.0 modules was a fairly decent underdark adventure (I can't remember the name for the life of me... had the Desmodu as a main part of it), and that played well when I ran it.

That's Deep Horizon

 

[phindar]

I probably have to high of standards. But none of the D&D works on the underdark capture for me the wonder (or danger) of cave passage or the sense of infinite adventure that's found in something like Verne's 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. The underdark should be alien, fantastic, and harsh. Not harsh just because everything roaming around in it is deadly, but rather everything roaming around in it is deadly because its so harsh. I'd like to see an underdark where everything down there on is the verge of starvation, and where wars are fought over patches of edible mold and mushrooms and caverns that allow thier cultivation. I'd like to see a Drow with a truly chaotic society, say something more like the culture of nomadic lion prides, than the hyper organized lawful predictable culture they've come to have. I'd like to see an underdark of alien wonders, or at least one which seems to be actually in three dimensions.

Nothing truly satisfies, but I don't think you could do much better for inspiration than the short description of the 'Deep Earth' in the 1st edition Dungeoneer's Survival guide.

Exactly, and the 1e Land of Deepearth is still my goto source for an underdark setting. The whole DSG is good, and since most of it talks about cave formation and general hazards, its still pretty useful even if its not statted out as 3e. (I can ballpark damage and DC's on the fly, but unlike Celebrim I don't have any real caving experience.)

One of the first Dragon Magazines I saw (this would be back in '88ish) had an article on cavern hazards that was pretty good. I think it was called "In a Cavern..." but I can't be sure. Talked about gases, cold, cave-ins, and so on. The whole issue might have had that theme.

In Okinawa, there is a natural cavern 5 miles long that crosses from one side of the island to the other. I never got a chance to see it because I always thought, "Eh, next weekend" and the opportunity got away from me. I thought that would make an excellent adventure though, have characters racing through a cavern to the other side of an island to beat a ship going the long way around.

But Celebrim's point above is exactly how I would like to see an underdark campaign run. I can't tell you how many adventures I've mentally checked out of because the supposedly alien landscape of the underdark was treated like any other 10'x10' corridor.

 

[Monkey King]

I'd recommend looting the 2E Night Below box set for parts, and possibly "Kingdom of the Ghouls" from Dungeon #70. Or -- yes, shameless plug -- you could donate to commission the upcoming 3.5 version of a ghoul-driven underdark at Open Design. That way you'd get a tailored design, of course, rather than something off the shelf.

What else? There's good drow bits available right now in the Green Ronin Plot and Poison: A Guidebook to Drow, so no need to wait on that account.

There's also a fun, short 3.5 Underdark adventure called "Home on the Range" in Dungeon 134, about beetle herding. Sounds goofy, but he pulls it off.

So, lots of resources, depending on what type of cavern/underdark you have in mind.

 

[Endur]

Scar,

It would be more entertaining if Orcus showed up, killed all the Drow gods and THEN you had to fight him.

ummm, Orcus showed up in my City of the Spider Queen. But he didn't kill all the Drow gods. I won't tell you what the Drow Gods did to Orcus.

As to the original poster's question ...

The afore mentioned City of the Spider Queen is for high level characters depending on how you convert the module from 3.0 to 3.5.

The Menzoberanzan boxed set is excellent ... but it is AD&D 2.0 so it needs to be converted to 3.5.

Fantastic Locations: The Fane of the Drow is a short 3.5 adventure for level 4-5 characters.

Various third party publishers have dark elf adventures, although they can't use Lolth in their publication. Monte Cook had a short dark elf adventure for level 11 characters called Queen of Lies, but its 3.0.

 

[Endur]

I'd like to see a Drow with a truly chaotic society, say something more like the culture of nomadic lion prides, than the hyper organized lawful predictable culture they've come to have.

I've always assumed that the Drow are in fact CHAOTIC evil, and that they are not lawful as portrayed in the novels.

The Spider Queen is the tyrant of their race, but she is fickle and delights in seeing them betray and murder each other (not to mention other races).

So their only lawfulness the drow present, should be their bowing down to the edicts of the Spider Queen. Those edicts are translated by the priestesses. Hence why the priestesses rule.

The whole academy thing made no sense at all to me.

 

[Dog Moon]

ummm, Orcus showed up in my City of the Spider Queen. But he didn't kill all the Drow gods. I won't tell you what the Drow Gods did to Orcus.

Uh oh, I hope Nightfall doesn't read this.

 

[Nightfall]

Dog,

I did and I'm not happy

Endur,

You suck! *is slightly kidding*