Goober4473
2016-06-27, 07:35 PM
So I've been running Out of the Abyss, and it's been going great, especially since I've been making lots of tweaks as I go. My players have been to Neverlight and Gracklstugh, and will be reaching Blingdenstone this week. I have a pretty good handle on how I'll be running that, as well as the final drow showdown, so I'm starting to look ahead to the second half of the adventure, and while I'm sure I'll have lots to say about each individual chapter, I wanted to take a step back and talk about the overall structure of act 2.
Tales From Below. My plan is to gloss over the convincing people to join them portion, and have most of that handled by NPCs. They'll simply be asked to lead the expedition, since they've seen what's down there. In place of negotiations, I'm instead going to do what I'm calling Tales From Below, where the players take control of various NPCs for a scene or two, to give them an idea of what's going on. My ideas for these encounters so far are (I have 5 players):
- The players play Eldeth, Morista Malkin, Ront, Ront's chief, and Ront's tribe's shaman. Their peace talks are interrupted by something evil. Maybe demons.
- The players play as Stool, Rumpadump, Glabbagool, Shuushar, and the awakened toad Croaky (who I included in my Sisters of the Dark Mirage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484741-Improving-the-Darklake-(Out-of-the-Abyss-Spoilers)) set piece encounter). I'm hoping to come up with a sort of puzzle situation, rather than combat.
- The players play the five Society of Brilliance members as they attempt to figure out what's going on down here.
- Possibly something with Topsy and Turvy, maybe with Hemeth added in.
The Expedition. I'll be using my Companion System (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?459858-NPC-Companion-System-Idea) to handle the soldiers and commanders. Unlike companions that stick with the party all the time, the "War Asset" companions will be available only while the party is with them ain expedition force, which will generally just be during travel. When an encounter happens there, I'll shuffle the various soldiers along with the commanders, and deal one out to each player for that encounter.
Gravenhollow and The Tower of Vengeance. So here's where things get interesting. What I want to do is have Vizeran's future image appear and tell the party that they came to him with a plan they said he told them about, and tells them about the ritual. The only catch is, he's not a very nice person, and when the players go knocking on his door, he won't be friendly. They'll need to convince him they're legit in order to get his help. I want to do this mostly because the Tower of Vengeance is otherwise a pretty pointless chapter that amounts to "talk to this guy when you're ready." Also, it reinforces the idea of the past/future images in Gravenhollow, which will help explain some thing I want to do later (see below).
The Ritual. I would like to replace the search for some random components with something a bit more personal to the demon lords. Either some piece of each demon lord, something that came with them into the underdark, or something that has been corrupted by them. These, plus the ritual book, make up the ritual. What I need, then, is some way to tweak the presented chapters to be about these new components. Any ideas here would be appreciated. I want to include some way to get them for Demogorgon, Orcus, Baphomet, and Yeenoghu, ideally using the Wormwrithings and Labyrinth as well as returns to some of the previous locations. The main reason I want to do this is to connect the quest more with the demon lords specifically, and also to let the players revisit places they've been before, now with a purpose other than escape.
Fraz-Urb'luu's gem should be smashed by this point (or just be included in the ritual and stepped on as in the book), and the Fetid Wedding should take care of Juiblex and Zuggtmoy. However, Graz'zt will appear to them in Gravenhollow as a past image, and tell them he overheard their plan and would like to go home to protect his considerable domain. He says he'll leave a piece of one of his horns where one of them will already have found it, and sure enough, Jimjar will pull it out of his sleeve, saying he picked it up a little bit before getting captured by the drow. Secretly, though, I'm planning to have Jimjar be Graz'z't in disguise, and telepathically tell his past image everything that's happened so far. When the ritual completes, he'll give his final "I bet you can do it", shapeshift into his true form, then get pulled into the big fight.
I also want to make sure that Baphomet and Yeenoghu don't get banished by the machine, since I want 5 demon lords for my players to run in the final smack-down. That looks like a great time and I don't want to deprive anyone. I might use the machine as part of one of the Tales From Below with the Society of Brilliance instead of having the players interact with it. At the very least, I won't have the "banish" option occur.
Does anyone have any other thoughts for this portion of the adventure?
Tales From Below. My plan is to gloss over the convincing people to join them portion, and have most of that handled by NPCs. They'll simply be asked to lead the expedition, since they've seen what's down there. In place of negotiations, I'm instead going to do what I'm calling Tales From Below, where the players take control of various NPCs for a scene or two, to give them an idea of what's going on. My ideas for these encounters so far are (I have 5 players):
- The players play Eldeth, Morista Malkin, Ront, Ront's chief, and Ront's tribe's shaman. Their peace talks are interrupted by something evil. Maybe demons.
- The players play as Stool, Rumpadump, Glabbagool, Shuushar, and the awakened toad Croaky (who I included in my Sisters of the Dark Mirage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484741-Improving-the-Darklake-(Out-of-the-Abyss-Spoilers)) set piece encounter). I'm hoping to come up with a sort of puzzle situation, rather than combat.
- The players play the five Society of Brilliance members as they attempt to figure out what's going on down here.
- Possibly something with Topsy and Turvy, maybe with Hemeth added in.
The Expedition. I'll be using my Companion System (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?459858-NPC-Companion-System-Idea) to handle the soldiers and commanders. Unlike companions that stick with the party all the time, the "War Asset" companions will be available only while the party is with them ain expedition force, which will generally just be during travel. When an encounter happens there, I'll shuffle the various soldiers along with the commanders, and deal one out to each player for that encounter.
Gravenhollow and The Tower of Vengeance. So here's where things get interesting. What I want to do is have Vizeran's future image appear and tell the party that they came to him with a plan they said he told them about, and tells them about the ritual. The only catch is, he's not a very nice person, and when the players go knocking on his door, he won't be friendly. They'll need to convince him they're legit in order to get his help. I want to do this mostly because the Tower of Vengeance is otherwise a pretty pointless chapter that amounts to "talk to this guy when you're ready." Also, it reinforces the idea of the past/future images in Gravenhollow, which will help explain some thing I want to do later (see below).
The Ritual. I would like to replace the search for some random components with something a bit more personal to the demon lords. Either some piece of each demon lord, something that came with them into the underdark, or something that has been corrupted by them. These, plus the ritual book, make up the ritual. What I need, then, is some way to tweak the presented chapters to be about these new components. Any ideas here would be appreciated. I want to include some way to get them for Demogorgon, Orcus, Baphomet, and Yeenoghu, ideally using the Wormwrithings and Labyrinth as well as returns to some of the previous locations. The main reason I want to do this is to connect the quest more with the demon lords specifically, and also to let the players revisit places they've been before, now with a purpose other than escape.
Fraz-Urb'luu's gem should be smashed by this point (or just be included in the ritual and stepped on as in the book), and the Fetid Wedding should take care of Juiblex and Zuggtmoy. However, Graz'zt will appear to them in Gravenhollow as a past image, and tell them he overheard their plan and would like to go home to protect his considerable domain. He says he'll leave a piece of one of his horns where one of them will already have found it, and sure enough, Jimjar will pull it out of his sleeve, saying he picked it up a little bit before getting captured by the drow. Secretly, though, I'm planning to have Jimjar be Graz'z't in disguise, and telepathically tell his past image everything that's happened so far. When the ritual completes, he'll give his final "I bet you can do it", shapeshift into his true form, then get pulled into the big fight.
I also want to make sure that Baphomet and Yeenoghu don't get banished by the machine, since I want 5 demon lords for my players to run in the final smack-down. That looks like a great time and I don't want to deprive anyone. I might use the machine as part of one of the Tales From Below with the Society of Brilliance instead of having the players interact with it. At the very least, I won't have the "banish" option occur.
Does anyone have any other thoughts for this portion of the adventure?