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View Full Version : DM Help Invasion of the Nine Hells



PandaPhobia
2018-04-04, 03:24 PM
My campaign thus far: Up until this point, my players have been slowly working their way though a dwarven mine in to the upper layers of the Underdark, chasing demons and clues alike to find out who really ordered the attack on their village. they got to the bottom-most level of the mine, move forward through the tunnels and eventually come across a split in the fabric of the universe: a glowing green portal leading into a maze full of demonic traps that they moved through with the help of a taking bear. they came across a dracolitch that eventually made them a deal: kill or otherwise disrupt the operations of those who had confined him to his lair, and he would reward them richly. They agree, and move forward through the tunnels, to another portal that led them to the Spires, an underdark city composed of ostracized and sentient skeletons and other undead. There they meet the King of Death, the ruler of the Spires, who has made a deal with the otherworldly invaders to harbor and protect them for their pending invasion of the overworld.

The Problem:
We are running out of time, as the school year is coming to a close, and I want to do the campaign justice while getting it done on time.

Any suggestion helps!

Bronk
2018-04-06, 01:41 PM
My campaign thus far: Up until this point, my players have been slowly working their way though a dwarven mine in to the upper layers of the Underdark, chasing demons and clues alike to find out who really ordered the attack on their village. they got to the bottom-most level of the mine, move forward through the tunnels and eventually come across a split in the fabric of the universe: a glowing green portal leading into a maze full of demonic traps that they moved through with the help of a taking bear. they came across a dracolitch that eventually made them a deal: kill or otherwise disrupt the operations of those who had confined him to his lair, and he would reward them richly. They agree, and move forward through the tunnels, to another portal that led them to the Spires, an underdark city composed of ostracized and sentient skeletons and other undead. There they meet the King of Death, the ruler of the Spires, who has made a deal with the otherworldly invaders to harbor and protect them for their pending invasion of the overworld.

The Problem:
We are running out of time, as the school year is coming to a close, and I want to do the campaign justice while getting it done on time.

Any suggestion helps!

Just from what you've written here, it seems like you've lost the plot thread of your campaign. It seems like the players were looking for whoever ordered an attack on their village, but stumbled upon all of this other stuff. Is their target here? If so, do they know that yet?

What do you have planned now? Did you want them to fight the King of Death, or break the portal, or what?

If I were to offer a suggestion, I'd:

1: Have their target be in there, maybe some lieutenant that they are now powerful enough to take on directly. Have his boss be the King of Death.

2: Let them have revenge on their target, then figure out what to do about the King of Death and this big invasion. Maybe they can figure out a way to kill the king, or maybe collapse the entire Underdark cavern, similar to what they did in the Forgotten Realms novels with Ched Nasad.

In that case, they used a lot of stone fire applications, and it was an epic end to the city brought about by many low level effects (I have no idea how powerful your group is). (If any of the undead, demons, devils or whatever the otherworldly creatures are could teleport away normally, the Faerzress can block it.)

3: Skip whatever you had planned with the demon/devil invasion and save it for another time.

4: They'll have to get back to the Dracolich for their reward. You'll have to figure out if they'll actually get a reward, or if it will just try to kill them, or if it's even still there now that it's free... it could already have packed up, left, and started terrorizing the land. That could be your lead in to your next campaign. Maybe he contacts the otherworldly invaders and offers them a better deal, then the time you spent on that won't be for nothing.