"Tales From Below", an OotA Interlude (Spoilers)

[Goober4473]

[Edit]: This is now complete, and can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwir5V4Ifx5dc2hjVjc0UnJDajg/view?usp=sharing

As I noted in an earlier thread, I'm planning a little interlude in between the first and second portions of the campaign that I'm calling "Tales From Below." I'll be reducing Chapter 8 quite a bit, glossing over preparations, running some interactions, narrating some down time, etc., and in place, the players will play a series of 6 "tales," likely over 2 sessions. In each tale, the players will be given a set of characters to play, and a small scenario will play out. A couple will likely be mostly combats, but for the others, I want to do some more interesting mini-games.

Here are my semi-concrete ideas so far for tales. So far I'm in the planning stage, and don't have any numbers or character sheets. Any notes or suggestions would be helpful.

(The tales are in order of the Stonespeaker's prophecy, not necessarily the order I'll run them.)

1. "The Rock Itself Cries In Pain And Horror." I want to use a slightly modified Ragnathrash (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526357/Images/Ragnathrash.jpg) band (by Dylan Melisko; I'll swap out the link to one he posted himself once I get one) for this tale. The band, on tour in the Underdark (rather suddenly), has to play a show in Gracklstugh while simultaneously trying to back out of their label contract that Garth had secretly made for them: with Orcus!

Undead attack them when they get on stage after things get heated in the back room, but the band can't screw this show up or they're sure to be eaten by Themberchaud, who has given them one last chance to prove themselves metal enough to live. I'll be keeping some kind of "rock meter" which must be replenished with stylish actions or musical solos. If it drops to 0, they fail the show, but the actions needed are less effective, or do nothing at all, in combat.

2. "A Madness Creeps From The Blackest Depths." In this tale, the players will take the role of a group of drow transporting the "criminal" Aljanor Keenblade, except one of the drow is actually Khalessa Draga, who has secretly let Aljanor escape, and one of them is secretly a succubus in the employ of Graz'zt.

The tale will then proceed much like a game of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, wherein each character has limited information, and perhaps reason to lie about it. The players will have 10 minutes (or some other amount) to roleplay, argue, and discuss what they know. After that, we either roll imitative and see who kills whom, or simply vote on who gets murdered like in One Night Werewolf.

3. "A Cave With Two Faces." The players play Eldeth, Morista Malkin, Ront, Ront's clan's Chief Ogurkek, and Ront's clan's Shaman Yagabek, as the dwarves and orc clan have a peace talk. I think this one will mostly be combat, as the negotiations are invaded by cultists that worship Demogorgon. These five will be cut off from their allies, and be forced to work together to survive, ultimately bringing them to trust one another.

4. "Rock Devoured, And The Land Overgrown." The players play as Glabbagool, and four others that are either weak or entirely non-combatants. I'm planning to use Stool, Rumpadump, Shuushar, and an awakened toad named Croaky (from my Sister Of The Dark Mirage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484741-Improving-the-Darklake-%28Out-of-the-Abyss-Spoilers%29) set piece).

What I'd like to do is have some kind of situation where the players have to get Glabbagool to block certain hallways. My current thought is to limit communication, and give each player tidbits of information, which must be communicated to the cube's player awkwardly. That or add a fifth character, and have the players try to coordinate issuing commands (things like "move north 10 feet" or "move west 15 feet", all chosen at once) to Glabbagool.

5. "The Earth Rejects Its Wards, And The Tunnels Shake In Fury." The players play the five Society of Brilliance members as they attempt to figure out what's going on down here. I'm considering having this involve the Maze Engine, but I don't have much else yet. I'd ideally like it to have little or no combat. Just some kind of neat puzzle solving. I just want to avoid things like riddles or "make a check to know the answer" situations.

6. "A Pebble Believes Itself Flesh." Finally, the players take the roles of Sladis, Rystia, Zilch, Amarith, and Peebles as they begin to notice things are amiss in Mantol-Derith. I think this might be good for a second combat-focused situation. Perhaps I could include Zellix's asylum (mentioned in the back of the book with the art) in some way here. Perhaps it is housed in Mantol-Derith, and he injects each of them with his serum. Totally out of their minds, they have to escape.

I wrote an intro to read to my players, as well:


The world once again feels peaceful and bright. A band of survivors parts ways under a blue sky, returning to the arms of beloved family or the security of respected leaders.

"Yet in the darkness below, malevolent forces still stir. And while survivors may yet be heroes, evil wastes no time spreading its twisted madness, and so it falls to the denizens of the dark to protect themselves.

"Welcome to "Tales from Below."

[DMBlackhart]

I just finished up an OotA game and I gotta say, wish I thought of this. It would have saved so much boring "downtime".

Very brilliant, 5/3 stars. Good job m8.

[Falcon X]

A few thoughts:
1. Have a pretty good idea of what Orcus is doing there and what his intentions are. Obviously, being super chaotic evil, these don't have to be grand plans. Cannonically, Orcus appeared inside a mindflayer city and killed a well known (has a cannonical name) Elder Brain. What happened after that is any mans game.
You might pull tie-ins with things the players learned the first time they were in Graklstugh. Maybe have one of the enlarge/shrink shrooms play into an escape... or a treacherous derro. Give them opportunities to gather imagery for cool looking scenery that the dragon or demon lord might like. Maybe they can learn secret things the patrons like so they can better appease them. That is, don't make it just a series of rolls, let them find stuff to help out those rolls.

2. Love it. This is about how things went down in my game when Buppido started killing people. Also reminds me of when Anti-Heroes comic (http://www.antiheroescomic.com/comic/281)did it.
If you are actually playing it like the game, this is pretty straight-forward. Give the exposition and jump into the game.

3. This is a good story, and one that would be fitting.
If you care about cannon, here is the backstory to this: Bruenor Battlehammer and the other dwarven kings have been battling against the orcs for several years. It has been a matter of months since the war ended with the agreement that the orcs will stay in their territory, and if they cross into the dwarven lands, they will be killed and possibly the war will begin anew.
A peace talk in this situation would be initiated by the orcs who would want more freedom, especially that in trade.
The orc situation looks a little like warcraft. They HAD been led by a ruthless leader, but through the war have come to be led by someone like Thrall who wants more peace and trade.
Having it be demogorgon's cult that attacks gives an excellent opportunity for the theme of "we must be one face, not two."
The dwarves have just claimed several citadels back, and those are what they will care about protecting. Demogorgan should be attacking one of them as a first foray onto the surface world. This should make the players scared. Up until now, the fighting was contained to the Underdark. This event will show that the destruction won't be limited to the Underdark and is something that MUST be stopped. Heck, this might cause the dwarves to be willing to send in an army.... maybe. Their people are stretched pretty thin right now.
I think the orcs should have the opportunity to take back a citadel through this, but instead hand it over to the dwarves as a good will offering.

[Goober4473]

A few thoughts:
1. Have a pretty good idea of what Orcus is doing there and what his intentions are. Obviously, being super chaotic evil, these don't have to be grand plans. Cannonically, Orcus appeared inside a mindflayer city and killed a well known (has a cannonical name) Elder Brain. What happened after that is any mans game.
You might pull tie-ins with things the players learned the first time they were in Graklstugh. Maybe have one of the enlarge/shrink shrooms play into an escape... or a treacherous derro. Give them opportunities to gather imagery for cool looking scenery that the dragon or demon lord might like. Maybe they can learn secret things the patrons like so they can better appease them. That is, don't make it just a series of rolls, let them find stuff to help out those rolls.

The main thing here for the larger plot is, I want to make sure the players know Orcus is in the mix. This likely won't have much, or anything, to do with his larger plans besides "also Orcus is here".

The backstory would be that Gaur'th made his contract years ago, but then all of a sudden he was told to tour the Underdark. When the band got down there, Orcus made more and more dangerous and evil demands of them (maybe something like planting explosives to take down the city's defenses, since it's pretty much Demogorgon's territory at this point). Unwilling to go that far, Gaur'th came clean to his band-mates and cut ties with Orcus, only to be held hostage by an every more insane dragon that demands they finish their show, death threats from an angry ex-manager or not.

Mechanically, I probably want to do a small backstage scene before the show, let them talk to an NPC or two, and get ready. I've had pretty good success with "describe your action and roll" style mini games, like with my chase system, but ultimately, my plan is to give abilities to the band members that make their choices interesting and tactical, not just "roll Charisma (Performance)" every turn. An ability might be a weak attack, but come with a boost to the rock meter if it hits/the enemy fails its save, for instance.


2. Love it. This is about how things went down in my game when Buppido started killing people. Also reminds me of when Anti-Heroes comic (http://www.antiheroescomic.com/comic/281)did it.
If you are actually playing it like the game, this is pretty straight-forward. Give the exposition and jump into the game.

I'm pretty confident about this one. My only consideration is whether I want to bring it into a full D&D combat, or leave it to a Werewolf-style vote. I think I like the vote, since it keeps it short and sweet. I'll probably run this one and #4, which should also be pretty short, in different sessions, leaving more room for the other two during each session.


3. This is a good story, and one that would be fitting.
If you care about cannon...

I'm running this in my own homebrew setting, so things are a little different (but not too much, as it turns out). A PC from my last campaign has been reclaiming an old dwarven kingdom that was destroyed by orcs centuries ago, beginning with the Glitterhame (site of The Forge of Fury). He's been very peaceful in his approach, which has brought great success, but while he's quite benevolent, not all of his underlings are, and others have taken the opportunity to go looting and pillaging in old dwarven ruins.

In my game, Eldeth was one of these tomb raiders, and had a run-in with Ront's tribe, who had already been dealing with less-than-friendly dwarves who were only talking peace because they were ordered to. Morista will be sent to deal with the situation, and Ront will request they send Eldeth as well, who he has come to respect as a fellow warrior, and who can make direct apologies. She's asked the party cleric to speak on her behalf when they get to the surface, and maybe join his church (St. Cuthbert) instead of going to jail for grave robbing/inciting an orc tribe. The former PC dwarf lord will instead send her to make amends, honoring Ront's request.

When I write the tale up for use by others, I'll be keeping it vague enough that it can fit any campaign, though anyone who's Ront and/or Eldeth is dead will need to replace them.

[Falcon X]

2. I like just leaving it werewolf style by default. It saves time and goes with the mini-game theme you have going. BUT if the players request to roleplay or fight through a part of it, let them. Or, if the werewolf game gets really deep, have them fight the actual killer as in a final, single boss fight.

4. I really like this idea. Perhaps they could be finding their way, accidentally or otherwise, into the labyrinth/Maze Engine. They could either show the players where this labyrinth access is, or perhaps while at the library the characters get a vision about these 4 being stuck there.
I think the other three should somehow be able to see what Glabbagool can't. Perhaps only they can see the map, but have to direct Glabbagool who can only see what is in front of him. Rapport Spores are the obvious means of commication between them, and this is limited by range.
As for the specifics, it depends on how you are actually playing through it. If:
a. Tower Defense. I think this would be great for a tower defense game. Hoards of enemies are coming to attack the thing in the center. The three characters are up on top of a maze dropping things on the enemies going through the maze, but Glabbagool is down below and can block paths. Lots of fun strategy. Would be a good way to introduce the minions of one of the demon lords too.
b. Pipe system. Water temple time! the characters have to get through a labyrinth of tunnels where water can be turned on and off and redirected. Glabbagool can be used to redirect the water to another part of the system so the characters can get through to the next part of the journey.
Course, this can get boring quick. I recommend either giving monsters to fight or items that will help them get through each area.

5. This is a tough one. I'll try to brainstorm.
a. Normal teleporation can get screwy, but using established magical circles to go to specific places should still be accurate. Maybe the puzzle will require them teleporting to multiple areas of the underdark, or just one major one. A few examples could be:
- Teleport into the Mind Flayer cavern that Orcus has recently destroyed. There should be very few enemies left if any. Perhaps the ghost of a mind flayer or an abomination they left. Or an undead mind flayer Orcus left as a sentry.
Personally, when I delve into Mind Flayer imagery, I tend to treat them like aliens from another planet with advanced technology. After all, that's pretty much what they are. Think about when you play Metroid and break into a Space Pirate base. Same deal. The teleportation circle is behind a sealed door. As you explore the abandoned station, you see the remains of mind flayer experiments, but also their monitoring of the underdark and recent events.
If you delve into cannonical ideas: There are two people that have a potential liaison-type connection to mind flayers and the drow who could be responsible for the demon lords coming to this world. The first is a Mind Flayer, Methil El-Viddenvelp (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Methil_El-Viddenvelp), who is the personal assistant to Matron Mother Baenre. Methil could easily be an agent of the Mind Flayers keeping an eye on the drow or manipulating them.
More directly, Gromph Baenre, who summoned the demon lords by accident, was able to summon them because a drow psion, Kimmuriel (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Kimmuriel_Oblodra), was teaching gromph psionics to boost his power. And where did Kimmuriel learn his psionics? From meddling mind flayers.
- Teleport into the Maze Engine. I honestly haven't read this part of the module, but it sounds legit.
- Teleport to Blingdenstone for a followup. Perhaps the Society of Brilliance has magical means to get more answers from the oozes.
- Teleport to the giant fungus and get a trippy experience talking to it's consciousness in the astral plane, looking down over it's entire body and the things effecting it.
b. Rats. The module never addresses if there is something larger going on with the wererats. In MY game, I created a minor subplot where Many-As-One (http://torment.wikia.com/wiki/Many-as-One) is trying to gain power in the Underdark. For those who don't know, Many-As-One is actually Ilsensine (http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ilsensine), the Mind Flayer goddess. Thus, anything Many-As-One does could be a Mind Flayer plot and tie back into what I said with idea a about Kimmuriel or Methil.
Many-As-One could have found a way to not only have a hive mind of Cranium Rats, but also extend a mental domination over any rat-like creature, including Were-rats. Thus, the Were-rat plague could be caused by Many-as-One.
For YOUR game, you could have the society of brilliance follow up on a lead on some were-rats and discover pieces of the larger plot to get Gromph to summon the demon lords, seeing as the Mind Flayers could easily be behind it all.
c. The Harpers have been closing off entrances to the Underdark. This is something of interest to the Society of Brilliance. Perhaps have a conflict between the two. Or have the two initially fight, but then make friends. The society of Brilliance can then pass word of their findings through the Harpers to Gauntlgrym.

6. I only skimmed that section of the book. I'll post if I get a chance to engage with that info more.

[Goober4473]

2. I like just leaving it werewolf style by default. It saves time and goes with the mini-game theme you have going. BUT if the players request to roleplay or fight through a part of it, let them. Or, if the werewolf game gets really deep, have them fight the actual killer as in a final, single boss fight.

As stated before, the "killer" in this case is Khalessa Draga, the spy, and the "murder" is secretly releasing Aljanor Keenblade, so having a boss fight situation isn't quite appropriate. I'll keep it just to the vote.


4. I really like this idea. Perhaps they could be finding their way, accidentally or otherwise, into the labyrinth/Maze Engine. They could either show the players where this labyrinth access is, or perhaps while at the library the characters get a vision about these 4 being stuck there.
I think the other three should somehow be able to see what Glabbagool can't. Perhaps only they can see the map, but have to direct Glabbagool who can only see what is in front of him. Rapport Spores are the obvious means of commication between them, and this is limited by range.
As for the specifics, it depends on how you are actually playing through it. If:
a. Tower Defense. I think this would be great for a tower defense game. Hoards of enemies are coming to attack the thing in the center. The three characters are up on top of a maze dropping things on the enemies going through the maze, but Glabbagool is down below and can block paths. Lots of fun strategy. Would be a good way to introduce the minions of one of the demon lords too.
b. Pipe system. Water temple time! the characters have to get through a labyrinth of tunnels where water can be turned on and off and redirected. Glabbagool can be used to redirect the water to another part of the system so the characters can get through to the next part of the journey.
Course, this can get boring quick. I recommend either giving monsters to fight or items that will help them get through each area.

I like the pipe system, since they're already acquainted with Glabbagool blocking off water from the Oozing Temple, but I don't want to use the Labyrinth for this one. "Rock Devoured, And The Land Overgrown" refers to Zuggtmoy and Juiblex, and these characters should be somewhere in the vicinity of Araumycos. Perhaps redirecting slime instead of water would work? Try to get it to consume the bad fungus?

I'm considering something like Robo Rally or Space Alert here. The players have a short time (say, 5-10 minutes) to plan by laying down command cards. Then everything resolves in order, and we get to watch the plans fall apart in action. I'm thinking this one might need a few "rounds" to get them acquainted with the rules.

I'll probably go with no player directly controlling Glabbagool, and instead add a different fifth character to play. Perhaps Sovereign Basidia, since their combat stats won't matter. I'' probably also give them each their own cube, so they can each give orders and crash into each other and stuff. Maybe Glabbagool has gained control of, or awakened, some other cubes.


5. This is a tough one. I'll try to brainstorm.
a. Normal teleporation can get screwy...
b. Rats.
c. The Harpers have been closing off entrances to the Underdark.

a. They society members can each teleport to another member's location 1/day, with no interference from the Underdark. I think having some kind of puzzle where they all need to end up somewhere, but each chamber requires some number of them to pass, could be interesting. I don't want to make it too zelda dungeony though.
b. The wererats are pretty well explained in Blingdenstone. A tribe came through, bit some survivors, and then left. The survivors then stuck around as wererats. I had them act sort of like a Mad Max style post apocalyptic society.
c. I'd like to keep this one related to the Labyrinth and/or Maze Engine. "The Earth Rejects Its Wards, And The Tunnels Shake In Fury" refers to The Maze Engine and Yeenoghu/Baphomet.


6. I only skimmed that section of the book. I'll post if I get a chance to engage with that info more.

I think this one should be pretty easy, and will be the second (along with the dwarf/orc peace talks) that functions more like a regular D&D game. The characters will just each have some incredibly debilitating form of madness, with more specific game mechanics than most, and then have to figure out how to escape despite that. For instance, "I can't harm anyone that has not harmed me" would prohibit attacks against any enemy that hasn't dealt damage to that character.

[mgshamster]

Dang it, Goober! Why do you always have to make such good stuff?

Now I'm torn - I already have background stories planned for chapter 7, where my players will get a chance to interact with people they wrote into their backgrounds. I'm not sure which to use. Maybe a sprinkling of both.

[Falcon X]

Cool stuff. Now that we've beat around a few ideas, do you have any specific issues you are having trouble working out?


Dang it, Goober! Why do you always have to make such good stuff?
I agree. Goober and mghamster, you two have thrown out some great ideas for Out of the Abyss. If I can ever get my game of it started up again, I'll be keeping a lot of your material in mind and use some if it seems appropriate.

Oh, BTW mghamster. Thanks again for the Dead Gods conversion. Assuming these things work correctly, I donated enough to buy a beer or something. Enjoy!

[Goober4473]

Cool stuff. Now that we've beat around a few ideas, do you have any specific issues you are having trouble working out?

here's the current state of things:

#1. I've decided the rock meters will be individual. If anyone drops to 0 rock meter, they'll have a round or two for their allies to bring them back, just like dropping to 0 hp. I still need to stat out the band members, and give them each actions that modify rock meters. This shouldn't be too tough, but it needs doing.

I made a playlist (https://play.spotify.com/user/1268199210/playlist/6RsxDFiTvNPXjggAYYlcBJ) for this tale. All songs from Guitar Hero 1 and 2.

#2. I'm pretty set here. I just need to get a good list of info for everyone to have. If anyone has a good idea of why everyone in the group would know the basics, like there is one traitor that let the prisoner escape, there is one demon, etc., that might be helpful.

Also, it might be nice to have two or three "rounds," but I have no real way of making that happen.

#3. I'm considering giving each character, or maybe just Morista and the orc chief, a "treaty approval rating." Certain actions add or subtract from this rating. At the end of the tale, if all of the approval ratings are at least some minimum value, the peace treaty is signed.

I'm thinking maybe each character will have a list of three or four things that will give them a point of approval, like "a dwarf uses the Help action to help you" or "an orc kills a hostile creature that is adjacent to you." It should be pretty easy to get all the points. Really I just want to encourage an extra level of teamwork.

#4. This is gonna need more fleshing out, but I'm not sure what anyone else can do at this point. I've settled on each player "controlling" a gelatinous cube (i.e. giving it orders), and doing a timed "choose your actions" section, where I reveal new information over the course of it, then everything resolves once the orders are all in, in the style of Space Alert.

I'm considering either making "command cards" out of index cards, which would have things like "move east 10 feet" and the like, but I'll probably just go with "everyone take an index card and write down your commands in order" and give a short list of possibilities to save on prep time.

#5. I'm still unsure of what to do with this one. I know it needs to be set in the Labyrinth and possibly have to do with Yeenoghu and Baphomet, and it needs to be non-combat and more puzzle solvign focused. I just need a good "mechanic" to work off of.

#6. This should be a simple matter of deciding on some good debilitating madnesses and setting up a mini dungeon. Any suggestions for madness would be welcome. They need to be truly debilitating, to the point where a room with a few weak enemies becomes a major hurdle for even reasonably powerful characters.

[Goober4473]

I've been putting together character sheets for these. Things are going pretty well. My game was delayed this week, so my current target for having these done is two weeks from now.

Some updates:

#2. I'm still figuring out exactly how I want this to run, but I might make it function more like the Resistance than One Night Werewolf.

#5. I've finally figured out what I want to do for this one: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes! One or two players get a sheet that shows a puzzle, while the rest get the information on how to solve it, with a time limit for solving it.

[Goober4473]

I'm gearing up to run session 1 of Tales From Below, and here's an incomplete first draft of the rules and characters: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwir5V4Ifx5dc2hjVjc0UnJDajg/view

(Note: I've re-numbered the tales based on the order I'll be running them.)

Tales 1-4 are theoretically complete, though might need some tweaking. I've got the character stats and maps for 6 made, and some description/intro for 5 and 6. I'll upload a new version once they're all done, and make another post after my next session to let you all know how it went.

[Goober4473]

My final Tales From Below document is now up (see edited original post), with all of my balance tweaks based on my experiences running it. So they should now all be fully playable by all you fine folks, if you want to use any of them.

The intention is to insert these tales between acts 1 and 2 of OotA, but you can use them any time, or even as little scenarios to play between games with your group. They're all designed for 5 players, and most would require a good amount of tweaking to make it work with more or less, and all of them have descriptions based on events in my own campaign, including some allusion to my game world (which is not FR), so you'll likely want to do a little rewriting no matter what. But they're lots of fun, so I recommend it if you want to add something weird and special to your game.