Beyond the abyss

[poolio]

Before i start let me just say there are going to be spoilers for the "Out of the abyss" campaign book (i have no idea how to use the spoiler thing to hide text so apologies before hand for my poor presentation)






My group will be completing the aforementioned campaign soon and want to keep going with their characters rather then start a new game, now i have a couple ideas on what to do next, I'm just not crazy familiar with all the lore, and would really appreciate some help in finding some more information or even maybe an old adventure i could get some ideas from or modify for my uses,

I'm thinking of sending the group to the relm of one of the demon lords, Orcus, specifically, but i know nothing about what that would be like, what is a campaign in hell like? Does anyone know of anything i should look up first? Has anyone here ever even played a game in this setting? Would it be possible to make a new campaign out of this or would it be better as a one (or two or three) off game?

Sorry, got a little frantic there, it's late when I'm posting this and I'm kinda just writing out my thoughts as I'm having them lol

Anyway, i really need to get to bed so I'll come back in the morning to see if anyone has any tips or places or ways to start writing a new game, thanks to anyone who managed to even get through my sleep deprived ramblings.

[the_brazenburn]

Orcus lives in the 113th layer of the Abyss, Thanatos. Here's what Forgotten Realms Wiki has to say about it:
This layer was a land of ruin and death, with sterile heaths, black forests, and desolate mountains filled with ruins and scattered tombs, inhabited by a variety of undead.[5][48][49]

The demon lord Orcus, the Prince of Undeath, ruled Thanatos from his seat in the Everlost palace, a castle made of obsidian and bone located in a vast wasteland called Oblivion's End. Orcus had been temporarily deposed of his post by the drow goddess Kiaransalee, who took control of the realm for a few centuries until Orcus returned and deposed her, forcing her to flee to the Demonweb.[5][48][50]

Orcus maintained a second lair in the fortress city of Naratyr, the City of the Dead. It was a quiet, cold and mostly empty city (except for the occasional wandering undead) surrounded by an icy moat fed by the river Styx. The city used to be Kiaransalee's winter capital,[51] and was left deserted following the return of the layer's original master. The inner walls of the central castle of bone were made of flesh and decorated with carpets made of hair.[52][48]

Some sources counted this as layer 333.[53][8]

As to the campaign idea itself, I like it! I've run similar things myself when I finished OotA, except I made Lolth the villain instead of Orcus.

[KorvinStarmast]

Before i start let me just say there are going to be spoilers for the "Out of the abyss" campaign book (i have no idea how to use the spoiler thing to hide text so apologies before hand for my poor presentation)

what you don't want to have spoiled
You enclose the text with "[" 's using the word spoiler, just as you do with quotes.

Assume that a { is a square bracket

{SPOILER=Here is how you do it}what you don't want to have spoiled{/SPOILER}

If you want to see what it looks like, just "reply with quote" my post and see what's in the spoiler tags.

[poolio]

Orcus lives in the 113th layer of the Abyss, Thanatos. Here's what Forgotten Realms Wiki has to say about it:

As to the campaign idea itself, I like it! I've run similar things myself when I finished OotA, except I made Lolth the villain instead of Orcus.

Cool thanks, this definitely helps give me an idea, but do you know of any adventures that take place in that relm? Are there actual cities with people living in them or is it just one big hell scape where the PCs would have to constantly be on guard trying to survive?

How did you run you poste abyss game?
What was the setting like?
It would actually be pretty helpful to get more ideas from more experienced DMs and I'd love to hear the story :)

[poolio]

what you don't want to have spoiled
You enclose the text with "[" 's using the word spoiler, just as you do with quotes.

Assume that a { is a square bracket

{SPOILER=Here is how you do it}what you don't want to have spoiled{/SPOILER}

If you want to see what it looks like, just "reply with quote" my post and see what's in the spoiler tags.

I think I'm doing it right

[the_brazenburn]

Cool thanks, this definitely helps give me an idea, but do you know of any adventures that take place in that relm? Are there actual cities with people living in them or is it just one big hell scape where the PCs would have to constantly be on guard trying to survive?

How did you run you poste abyss game?
What was the setting like?
It would actually be pretty helpful to get more ideas from more experienced DMs and I'd love to hear the story :)

1. There are no published adventures in 5e that take place outside of the Material Plane (with the possible exception of Curse of Strahd).

2. The Abyss is supposed to be a complete hellhole without mortals. If you wanted something along those lines, you could create a city of drifting ghosts and spirits who can remember little of their former lives. For bonus creep, you could have some of the ghosts be people that the party killed during OotA, who just barely recognize them.

3. My game was mostly the party trying to get through the different levels without getting killed. To add a level of chaos, I made any attempt to move to a different level completely random what level they ended up on. They eventually had to make an alliance with Baphomet to get them to Lolth's layer. The setting definitely isn't for the weak of heart (or stomach), but your players should be basically okay if they liked OotA.

They should still keep a few dozen extra characters on hold, though.

[Envyus]

There is a 4e adventure that has the party go to Thanatos. The E Series.

As well the Power Score Blog has a bunch of information collected on Thanatos http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.ca/2017/05/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-thanatos.html

[cZak]

It's been a loooooong time....

How about steering the group towards a retributive bend.
Pick up Queen of the Demon Web Pits, review & modify for a 5e slant and go

[Cespenar]

You could do something with some of the open ends of the campaign instead. Like:

-If any one of the demon lords has some henchmen that the group missed, they might work on resummoning the demon lord.

-Or you could do something with Menzoberranzan, the drows going crazy with Lolth's influence or whatever.

-Or Gromph might have decided to just remove the PCs out of the question, since they know so much and aren't drows themselves.

-Or this whole thing might be Asmodeus's plan and the devils finally prepare their own invasion once the demons are out of the picture.

-Or some mage/cleric might be trying to harvest all this leftover demonic energy to attain unlimited power or whatnot.

-Or the same thing with a warlock or cultists, trying to make his patron(s) a proper god.

[poolio]

Sorry, works been running me ragged recently and between that and actually getting some ideas i forgot to come back to my thread lol anyways thanks all for the advice and ideas, I'll be sure to check out some of the materials mentioned here for more ideas and fine tuning though, thank you all again

[jayst]

hoping so, 'cause I was wondering

[Whit]

Everybody uses orcus. He must be the poster boy of kick my butt at high level
Try denogorgan or something different