Underground Campaign Ideas

[redstonenaruto]

I've been playing too much deep rock galactic and now I want to run an underground dwarven adventure.

My players are going to play as like dwarven fantasy osha inspectors, but they'll be tasked by a mining coalition between the major dwarven clans to quell riots among striking miners and fending off giant ants from an old forge, ya know normal
dwarf ****.

The coalition is gonna be super duper evil and the players will have to choose either improving the lives of the dwarves or fear the wrath of the coalition.

I need help creating quest ideas and areas (that are hopefully a tiny bit more creative than mushroom forest, more like an upside down ocean with duergar vikings patrolling its waters).

Also any stupid ideas are cool too, my games tend to be more like adventure time rather than LOTR.

[Bohandas]

How about a haunted former illithid settlement that was destroyed by a demonic incursion as an underdark location

[Misereor]

The job: Rescue settlement that has been cut off by flooding.


Some premade solutions along with attendant problems:

Find way to traverse submerged tunnels.
Floodwaters contain nasty critters that are not really cost efficient to exterminate. (Creativity problem solution.)

Reopen old tunnels through abandoned complex that were closed because of mysterious curse.
Lift curse or die trying. (Investigation/Puzzle problem solution.)

Gain assistance from external faction that happens to have everything needed to complete the job.
Faction is hostile. (Diplomacy/blackmail/roleplaying problem solution)


Add what you think is an appropriate amount of combat for your players to each solution.

[Bohandas]

*The mining is interfering with some unexpectedly intelligent creatures (think the horta from Star Trek or the Grungees from The Jetsons) who are retaliating

*(possibly in conjunction with the above) A bunch of druids dressed like oldschool hippies are displeased with the mine's environmental impact

*Local god of minerals must be appeased by some kind of grandisoe trial by ordeal, possibly resembling a live-fire version of 1990's Nickelodeon gameshow (ie Legends of the Hidden Temple, GUTS, etc)


Also any stupid ideas are cool too, my games tend to be more like adventure time rather than LOTR.

You mean before it got all serious, right?

[Resileaf]

An ancient dwarven hold thought lost for centuries has been rediscovered, miraculously with its population still alive. However, those dwarves have no recollection of ever being separated from the greater empire.

[redstonenaruto]

How about a haunted former illithid settlement that was destroyed by a demonic incursion as an underdark location

I was kind of thinking about having a Mind Flayers tower, at its top is like a large jar with an ancient decrepit man inside of it with some like grass and sticks. Maybe he could be like a demon that got tricked inside of it and is trying to free himself any way necessary.

[redstonenaruto]

An ancient dwarven hold thought lost for centuries has been rediscovered, miraculously with its population still alive. However, those dwarves have no recollection of ever being separated from the greater empire.

I love this idea so much, maybe they're just like down the road from the main city and everyone just literally forgot about them.

[redstonenaruto]

*Local god of minerals must be appeased by some kind of grandisoe trial by ordeal, possibly resembling a live-fire version of 1990's Nickelodeon gameshow (ie Legends of the Hidden Temple, GUTS, etc)

Maybe the hippies are protesting against the live sacrificing to olmec.

[verbatim]

I recommend Veins of the Earth (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/209509/Veins-of-the-Earth) anytime and every time someone asks for recommendations about anything underground.

To whit:
the geographic distance from grazing fields for cattle and lumber in general increases the relative advantages an underground society would have for having similar practices to the Native American "use every part of the animal", as well as repurposing and eating of the dead as funerary rights.

If an npc leaves behind an edible body all of the other NPC's will say "he would have wanted it that way" as they devour him in a celebration of his life.




ignoring the book entirely if that's too dark: kobolds who live in an abandoned mining encampment, and have all sorts of devious tactics and techniques that revolve around using minecarts to run sorties on intruders before retreating back to safety. Following in a minecart could be a way to get behind their defensive line, or riding headfirst into a trap.