Help a future DM with a possible idea

[Beeba17]

Hey so. My party is wrapping up Mines of Phandelver and there’s a sort of feeling that we wanna diverge into our own thing. Me and my friend have decided to swap around DM status because both of us get to play and both of us get to DM. He has been running Phandelver. And has a small buffer campaign after introducing something I introduced to him but he’s running because it’s soemthing relevant to my character. So our party would be around 5th-6th level After this we want to give me a shot. I’ve been working with our current DMs older brother who’s. A far more experienced DM on a bigger more “epic” campaign but we don’t know if it would be done by then.. add that to the fact I just fell in love with the story of Drizzt Do’Urdun again. ( was doing book reports on Icewind dale in 8th grade). There’s something super appealing to an Underdark story. But I don’t wanna do Out of the Abyss neccesarily? I just personally don’t want to dive into a huge campaign with this. Rather soemthing to get my feet wet with DMing before my more big story comes into play [Shadow Dragons anyone?]

The party we have thus far is

Pele a Tiefling Sorcerer Whos prone to acts of stupidity and gives into his base desires. Burn, Lust, and Booze. He’s usually the one gettin for put in line by the rest of the party but his charisma is so damned high he gets his way.

Alpheus a Dragonborn fighter who’s more on the straight And narrow, he’s the one keeping the party in line and is the Dad friend of the group.

Avanna is an aasimar cleric who wants to be helpful and is meek and kind. Her divine patron. Wants her to smite anyone who has committed an offense. It’s a very fun interplay between DM and PC good for a goof or even a moral quandary on occasion

Lynn Is my half elf bard. He’s been a traveler all his life with his music. And is sorta the optimistic happy kid who wants to make friends. Even though most of his friends like to prank him and use him as the butt of their jokes


Raijin is a human rogue who has worked with Pele on scam after scam, more quiet Raijin has a tendency to try and act like some deep thinker when really he wants something very simplistic, he holds himself to a high standard that he thinks he reaches.

And a major NPC and the Star of the buffer campaign

Lia.

Lia is the most cool thing that came out of character creation. When I made Lynn I used the tables in xanatahrs Guide and created 2 siblings for him. Siblings he never met since his parents had him put with a bard guild and shipped off as a child. His siblings are older than him but he has very little memory.

One Laucian was chaotic evil and died in a famine... hah
Lia was a nueteral rogue who runs a thieves guild.

A thieves guild that hired on Pele And Raijin to There scams and catalysted the party meetup in Mines of Phandelver. Unknowingly causing a chain of events that would reunite her with her brother Lynn.


That’s where the story will be come the start of this. I am not sure where to go ive had some brainstorm thoughts

* If I can have Drizzt in this story and live something I thought would be cool way before I started playing D&D that would Be Cool

* Maybe Lia has had some dealings in the Underdark

* Would it Be possible for there to be some small settlement on the outskirts that’s less evil? Perhaps a place that could become a recurring location for the party but here In the short term could be the place your out to defend and give structure too?

I dunno if this helps you all with where’s I’m at but I really want to do this now and. Kinda am hoping for some ideas.

Thanks!,,

[Armored Walrus]

You're getting a lot of views but no replies. I suggest it's because of the stream-of-conscience wall of text. Maybe you could summarize what your actual question is?

[Quoz]

One idea I like to explore when I GM is that no one truly believes they are evil. Look at the real world. No matter what horrible thing people do, especially large groups of people, they always find a way to self-justify.

Now the underdark is a big enough place, and with just enough mental space from real world problems that you can explore those themes. You could come up with a bunch of factions that might be hostile to outsiders but hate one another deeply enough to try and court your group as mercenaries. Deep gnomes that want you to steal back something from some Drow, Duregar and mind flayers in a border skirmish, or any other combination you can think of.

This can be just backdrop to the other adventures and random encounters or a central theme. Since you have a thieves guild feeding you jobs, I would play it like this:

Give the group one sending stone, with the other held by Lia. Each session can be episodic, starting with a short mission the thieves guild has been contracted to do. Since you just get a short message once per day it can just be instructions on where to go and who to contact for the job.

Then build up whatever overarching plot you choose to reveal over the course of the campaign. A common enemy manipulating the various factions, a multi-species cult trying to summon something world-ending, or whatever else you choose. Give little pieces here and there until they stumble onto the main plot.

Sounds like you already know your party pretty well so add in whatever personal hooks you like. Provide situations that aren't so morally clear where they might have different ideas on the right approach.

Sounds like a fun group. Good luck!