[Spoilers-Out of the Abyss] My Player's wild escape.

[Nishant]

Okay, so I don't really know where to start, so I'll just jump right into the meat of things. The PCs were in the cells all of 2 in game days. before escaping as a group. On the second day, I had Ronk(Orc), Derendil(Quagoth), And Sarith (drow) with two of the PCs; A monk and a barbarian with a makeshift club. I had them all make strength checks for hard labor, and Derendil rolled a natural 1. Given the stress and beatings he was about to receive, I made him make a wisdom saving throw to keep him from going berserk. He failed that too. Long story short, this caused a huge brawl that resolved in Ronk's and Derendil's death, taking out 3 Quagoth, 2 Drow, and a Drow Elite in return. They took their weapons and set off to rescue their friends, and they quickly went to "Stealth-Mob-Killing" The drow in the first tower, as well as Alara and the Giant spider in the Shrine.

Then came the fight with Ilvara and Shoor. The party was still on it's 'sneak and tread carefully run', So they headed into the lower room quietly, searching for their things. Ilvara and Shoor are present, and both roll natural one's on their checks to notice the group of prisoners. Given the fluff they give you, and the fact that they both failed so horribly, I made a roll to decide what they were preoccupied with... Which led them to be unarmored and unarmed for the first round they could react- and they were killed swiftly.

By the end of it, Buppido and Jimjar were slain by the remaining drow elites and Jorlan, but the entire prison had effectively been routed.

So now I'm in this wierd place of 'Congrats guys, good work on that first part of this adventure!' as well as 'Well, now what? Part of the first half of this module is the other drow chasing after you to kill/ recapture you.' This is more of a survival exercise at the beginning.. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see my players succeed, but I didn't expect this first session to go this way at all. Monks aren't OP by any means, but they didn't see her coming, that's for sure.:smalleek:

They haven't decided where they are going from the prison yet, but what would you suggest to keep them on their toes?

[SharkForce]

pretty sure not all of the drow in the world were in that one prison camp. most likely, they would be expecting regular communication; caravans bringing supplies in, and bringing the results of the hard labor out, for example.

once they find out what happened to their camp, I consider it highly improbable that their response will be to just accept it and carry on with their lives. the PCs probably bought themselves a bit of time (and possibly superior resources), but they should still be in a bad situation should they decide to stay there. if necessary, have some NPCs point that out to them.

[endur]

Prince Darendil is the most dangerous of the NPCs, and Ronk and Sarith are pretty close behind him. They make the most sense for hard labor, but it was arrogant of the drow to put all three of them in the same work group.

This adventure is a sandbox, and you can adjust it however you need to. Subsequent chapters describe what to do with Buppido and Jimjar and what to do with the drow pursuit. You could just ignore all references to the drow pursuit (just like ignoring the future references to Buppido in Gracklstugh).

Or you could decide that drow family members from House Mizzryn and/or Vandree will now seek revenge.

Part of it may depend on why the PCs and NPCs were captured as slaves. Were they just random prisoners? Or were they sought particularly for some reason?

If the PCs are from the surface world, the rest of the module still works well, as the PCs may still want to return to the surface world. In order to find a route to the surface world, they will have to visit the various under dark communities to find a way out.

Velkynvelve does not have a route to the surface world (at least, not one that the PCs can use).

[Bubzors]

I'm pretty sure that in the module it accounts for killing everyone. Don't have the book on me at the moment but I'm fairly certain it mentions that other drow are sent to investigate when they lose communication to the prison. Finding it destroyed they send out a hunting party and you basically just throw in drow of the same quality as the named NPCs who died

[Nishant]

Prince Darendil is the most dangerous of the NPCs, and Ronk and Sarith are pretty close behind him. They make the most sense for hard labor, but it was arrogant of the drow to put all three of them in the same work group.

This adventure is a sandbox, and you can adjust it however you need to. Subsequent chapters describe what to do with Buppido and Jimjar and what to do with the drow pursuit. You could just ignore all references to the drow pursuit (just like ignoring the future references to Buppido in Gracklstugh).

Or you could decide that drow family members from House Mizzryn and/or Vandree will now seek revenge.

Part of it may depend on why the PCs and NPCs were captured as slaves. Were they just random prisoners? Or were they sought particularly for some reason?

If the PCs are from the surface world, the rest of the module still works well, as the PCs may still want to return to the surface world. In order to find a route to the surface world, they will have to visit the various under dark communities to find a way out.

Velkynvelve does not have a route to the surface world (at least, not one that the PCs can use).

They had believed Ronk's will to be broken, as on the first day he was knocked out by another PC in fisticuffs. (A half-elf warlock, and they didn't cast Armor of Agathys. Just beat the tar out of him.) Sarith didn't join until Derrendil got two lucky crits on the Elite; that wounded ability caused some serious damage.

kind of a shame; They'll likely lose their navigator in Sarith due to his incoming madness, and Topsy and turvey will likely leave since they've been armed and have about three weeks head start on the drow that will eventually come for the prisoners.

[mgshamster]

I had topsy and turvy turn the first night of their escape, and the PCs had to deal with two surprises in the middle of the night.

After they subdued them, they realized that the twins were trying to fight their curse, and promised to help them overcome it. I had this grant some loyalty with the twins and they are actively working with the party's goals.