Where am I going with this.

[djdaidouji]

Hi, I'm kind of new to the forums, so this is my best guess as to where to put this.

Anyway, I'm going to be starting an adventure in a while after I move, and I've hit a snag. I have ideas, but none of them seem to work.

The start of the adventure has all of the players in the sewers of a small to medium sized town, recently escaping capture from the town guard. For some reason, the guards have been taking almost everyone into custody. It began just elves, then it turned to all non-human races, and now it is seemingly random who is jailed. The majority of the city is now either in hiding, locked up, or placed in a sort of district lock down.
The players, as well as a small group of NPCs, are now living in a sewer system after their district was ransacked and everyone else was taken away. They are right underneath a monstrous-humanoid district which has been in lock-down. Due to one of the NPC's kindness, the PCs are allowed to roam the area without being harmed by the residents, but they mustn't get caught by the occasional guard who roams.

Now...I've written myself into a corner. The PCs will probably begin knowing that the main exits of the sewers have been blocked or are being guarded. (A small note, there seems to be a much larger amount of guards in this town then usual, though the PC's should realize that on their own). I don't know exactly what to do.

I'm thinking for the first bit, maybe from level 1 to level 2, they'll be doing various missions that the group of NPCs with them wants. Someone has heard some roaring noises down a tunnel, and they want someone to investigate before it finds them, for the sake of the children. Or maybe one of them has gotten sick, and an NPC who used to run a pharmacy/apothecary/etc knows of a herb that will help them get better, so the PCs need to venture into the town secretly to get the medicine.

What I want to do is get the PCs out somehow without most of the other NPCs. The city is in a valley, fairly far away from any other human settlements, though there is rumor of an elvan village to the east a ways. I'm bouncing ideas of the PCs getting captured above ground and somehow escaping, but how can I do that? I don't want them to find a magical teleporting sewer pipe that leads to freedom because I can't find any plant creatures that are similar to piranhas, and it's kinda cheesy. Perhaps they find another group of hiding people who have found a way out, but when they go back to their home sewer, their friends have been eaten...


The reason the town is going into lockdown is because wanted a good reason for a fully diverse group of people to be in the same party, as I won't know the characters playing for a while. The whole campaign is based on a shadow race trying to do something evil by taking over all of the towns. All of the town guards are under some kind of control or suggestion spell, which is why they aren't revolting to this...

Anyway, does anyone have any idea where I can go with this?

 

[Gilladian]

I think part of your problem with creating the adventure is that you have some internal logical problems - you have a city large enough for separate districts, a monstrous humanoid district, etc... and a huge sewer system, but you have the city located in an isolated valley away from civilization... I don't think it works. Also, remember that if much of the town's population is locked up, you're going to have problems with rotting food, starving animals, disease, waste control, etc...

Either make it a small city/town with a combination of sewers/cellars/natural caves under the core of the town, with a few bits stretching to villages on the outskirts. Or bite the bullet and put your large, active, interesting city on a main trade route (and also likely a river).

Perhaps what's happened is a subtle invasion by a neighboring power (not necessarily another country/nation, but some group/entity) that has decided the PCs nation is a danger to them. Maybe mind-flayers, although they'd be unlikely to miss people hiding underground. Maybe you need some kind of flying/aerial race that would not truly realize how substantial an underground system can be.

Your ideas for low level adventures sound good - a few more would be things like - rescue a group of children who are known to be in a school/orphanage and are being neglected or are the children of one of the NPCs. Break an important person out of jail. Break into a records office to get maps of an area of the underground (catacombs maybe?) that are too complex to explore without a map.

Getting the PCs out of town without a mass of NPCs is simple enough - there must be places the sewers drain that they could use to leave. Maybe once they're decently higher level, they decide to fetch help from a neighboring community. A really good chase could result here as the PCs nearly get caught, elude capture and get pursued.

When they discover that their town's situation is not unique, they'll probably get very scared and perhaps want to give up. Don't be afraid to give them clear signs of hope - allies they can find, other escapees, proof that the bad guys can be defeated, etc...

 

[djdaidouji]

I agree with your point about city size. The reason I wanted it to be away from other settlements is because the town capital probably has a problem with it being taken over. If it was difficult to get to, chances are the capital wouldn't interfere for longer. However, I never thought that this could be spread to other places, which is entirely logical.

So I'll make it a city large enough to have walled districts and a large enough sewer system to live in (the city could just have terrible planning and a number of combined sewer system projects that never became a real whole). As for the problems with food and disease... I think that those could be partially put aside. The city is still receiving enough food and water, though at a smaller level, but it don't know if food gathering needs to be at the front of the PCs minds.

I'm concerned about the level they have to be to escape. In 4e, isn't a level about ten encounters? There are only so much they can do without alerting their presence to the officials... Though they could as well, but the last thing I want to do is get the PCs captured. I like the idea of going to a records office for maps, getting them into some catacombs.

Thank you very much, I'll definitely be keeping all of your ideas in mind!

 

[Aholibamah]

What you could do rather than have a network of other cities is have a fair number of small villages, noble estates, and smaller towns in the area.

Also check out the Savage Tide from Dungeon--the city of Sasserine has a complex underground that the thieves' guild uses. The Seed of Sehan adventure path from Dungeon also has an interesting underground complex you could use.

 

[sinecure]

I agree. You could have an isolated city like they did in Iceland, but because it is a city you'll want lots of city supporting civilization. Towns, villages, and farmland. That's the kind of stuff you'll find in practically every D&D adventure module anyways, so I don't think you'll have a problem.

 

[the Jester]

Why not have the pcs pull a few hit-and-run attacks on isolated guard houses and stuff, to let them get a few clues about what's going on? If you're careful, you can set things up so a competent pc attack will achieve victory without alerting other groups of guards. You might also consider having the pcs try to infiltrate a prison house and free a prisoner or something.

As far as escape goes, if the pcs' patron is monstrous, might it have some ability to get them out via flight, teleportation or something? Maybe it has a pass to go in and out of the city, and if they use reduce person, he can swallow them whole in a bag and then vomit them out outside of the city (like a 'mule' smuggling cocaine in his stomach!).

 

[LostSoul]

The other NPCs that you (as DM) don't want to leave - they don't want to leave. They want to stay and fight. They also want the PCs to leave to go and get some help from outside while they fight from here.

You could solve the "city size" issue by making it a small city or large town built on the ruins of an ancient metropolis. Cities can shrink in size over time. Plus, you can have cool ruins underneath the city full of great adventure hooks.

 

[djdaidouji]

Wow. Thanks for the great ideas, everyone.

I would rather an isolated city, so the small surrounding villages idea sounds perfect. Plus building it on top of a larger city seems like a good idea to keep them safe from the guards. (Perhaps some are searching down there, giving the PCs the task of clearing them out, or at least hiding their hiding place better.)
The idea to strike a guard house is pretty awesome, though it would be really risky. If they get caught, the worst is they go to jail, but at the same time, I don't know how to do a reasonable jail breakout without it seeming cliched, though I really like the PC mule idea.

For the escape, I have a plan. They find a tunnel leading past the city walls. (Perhaps they acquire a map from the guards showing all of the secret exits, each of them marked that they are being guarded, but one tunnel is marked "closed in, no danger," but when the PCs check, it only has a light collapse of the side and with a little cautious digging, allows them to get out.) When they go back for their families in the hideout, they find that the guards have discovered them and taken them away. A hastily scribbled note can be found from the leader of the hideaways (an older man who used to be a war vet or something) tells the PCs to escape and get help, don't risk it all by trying to save them now. Perhaps directions to a nearby town's guild, or an elven city known for warriors.

Thank you everyone! *Tearing up at the kindness*