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Another_Poet
2008-11-17, 03:06 PM
I'm gearing up to DM an Iron Kingdoms 3.5 game using Pathfinder RPG rules. The PCs will start at level 1 arriving at the city of Five Fingers for the first time in their lives. Session 1 is char gen and looking for work. Session 2 will be starting whatever dangerous job they have found, hopefully working in the crime-ridden sewers of the city. My group is pretty good about biting the plot hook so I feel okay about planning out some of the sewers ahead of time.

I want the game to be very much a game of exploration and surprise. They're just trying to do the ordinary work of restoring the sluice gates and pumping stations of the city sewers, but keep having dangerous run-ins with local gangs, Thamarite septs, criminal activity and intrigue of every kind. I'll give them the run of the Doleth Island sewers to explore and map as they wish, in whatever order they wish (using real-world sewer maps as a starting point). Along the way they should encounter plenty of treasure of both the stolen & hidden, and lost & forgotten varieties.

So here is my question for you, fellow Playgrounders: what incidents, scenarios, and potential discoveries would you scatter about the sewers awaiting the PC's? (I have my own list but am curious what you all would suggest.)

All ideas, even from people not familiar with Iron Kingdoms/5 Fingers are welcome. I am especially interested in real "Iron Kingdomsy" ideas though, to help immerse my players in this world for the first time.

ap

Stupendous_Man
2008-11-17, 04:00 PM
So here is my question for you, fellow Playgrounders: what incidents, scenarios, and potential discoveries would you scatter about the sewers awaiting the PC's? (I have my own list but am curious what you all would suggest.)


A clog, CR 5

daggaz
2008-11-17, 05:29 PM
Heh... when I was a kid in gradeschool, we actually explored the storm drain system. (it was a semi-rural community, this was for run-off, no raw sewage of any sort).

Basically at the end of a long, heavily wooded ditch, there was a large concrete pipe with a iron grate over it. We squeezed in thru the bars (only there to keep debri out, really) and walked in.. EVen tho we were pretty short at the time, being only about 10-12 yrs old, we still had to stoop which made walking difficult. The bottom was curved of course, and there was water running in it, so you had to keep your feet out to each side as well, for added difficulty. All of this together made walking just a mile VERY tedious.

As we got further into the tunnel, the walls changed colors, and there began to hang rust-sickles from the ceiling. Long, skinny, bright orange stalactites. THe mud got finer and siltier as well, and a bit more slipperier.

The best part, the older kids had already been down there, and they had scrawled strange messages on the walls, usually dark and scary poems, kind of silly if you were an adult reading it tho.

After a quarter mile, the pipe made a ninety degree turn, and then it began to descend somewhat. At this point, the other kids always turned back. They were afraid of all sorts of things. Gas explosions (we always used flashlights, not candles), the lights failing, rats or monsters, or just slipping down somewhere and never being able to get back out. Of course, nobody knew we were down there, so that was the scariest thought, really. Getting trapped alive in the sewers.. Heh, we laid out a long piece of string the first time we went because of that.

Well, me and and a friend did finally make it to a conjunction box, sort of a giant concrete block where the other pipes met up. It was full of nasty water and you would have to go waist deep, so we never did go any further than that. Had for years this stupid rumor going around school tho that I popped up out of a stormdrain by the Texaco station... damn that one lasted all the way into highschool, man kids are dumb.

But all in all it was a pretty cool, freaky adventure to have in grade school. I could imagine all sorts of ways to put it into a DnD perspective, but I think the best thing would be to just try and hit on that subtly building nameless terror. In hind sight, it was totally harmless down there, but it scared the bejeezus out of most of my friends and even I was pretty worried the deeper I went. So yeah, just build up this horrible feeling of dread and isolation, of rot and dark, deep places from which there may be no mistake... of shadows around which could hide all sorts of unimaginable horrors, but beyond which usually just lie deeper shadows.

Your players' own imaginations will do all the rest..

SurlySeraph
2008-11-17, 05:36 PM
Kobolds have tunneled into the sewers. Depending on how brave they are, the PCs can either seal off the link between their tunnels and the sewers or clear them out of their lair.

Oozes always live in sewers. Always.

A criminal organization/cult/bunch of random lunatics holds regular meetings in the sewers.

Some noble's miniature poodle fell down the toilet. Find it, clean it off, and bring it back to her.

The city was built on top of an older city. That older city is still accessible through the sewers - there's a hole that goes down to some of its higher roofs. Unfortunately, the ancient city is inhabited by (pick one or more of the following: a lich, drow, insane pale-skinned cannibals, forgotten aberrations).

Vagnarok
2008-11-17, 05:42 PM
Hmm, idk, maybe a poop gollum? Or you could have a pit trap with ****cicles at the bottom!

hotel_papa
2008-11-17, 06:34 PM
Sewers make good lairs for creatures with sunlight (or any light) sensitivity. A threat of methane explosion is a bit catgirl-bane, but can do wonders for a good sense of apprehension and dread. I'm not familiar with Iron Kingdoms. Is that the low-magic, mostly human game? Because no fire and no light spell make human a scared boy.

Prometheus
2008-11-17, 10:20 PM
I think this thread on Swamps (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72683&)should be appropriate. Plus a lot of things in Dungeonscape. Don't forget to put some bandits or criminals who are using the sewer as a hide-out but are otherwise mundane.

Attilargh
2008-11-18, 01:57 AM
A bunch of rogue arcane meks have dammed the sewer to power their arcane turbine.

ghost_warlock
2008-11-18, 02:14 AM
Teenage Mutant Anthropomorphic Ninja Turtles.

C'mon, you know you want to.

Cheesegear
2008-11-18, 02:22 AM
Everyone loves Morlocks (The X-Men kind) in the sewers. Espacially Caliban. He'll mess you up.

Alternatively, you could use Morlocks (of the H.G. Wells kind. Probably better known as Murlocs these days).

Both kinds live in sewers.

BobVosh
2008-11-18, 03:19 AM
giant mutated goldfish/alligators

caden_varn
2008-11-18, 06:21 AM
Well, there are all sorts of things that use the caves under 5 fingers. Best advice I'd say is to be a bit sparing in what they stumble over. The people using the caves mainly don't want to be found, and are generally good at concealing themselves. The group is likely to spot sentries at best unless they are being very stealthy. They may well wander into traps, or if they seem to be sniffing around, an ambush by whoever claims this bit of tunnel.

You aren't likely to get a lot of monsters there IMO - as 5 Fingers is in the middle of a river, it is probably difficult to make it into the caves without accessing them via the city itself - most creatures will either be imported or at home in the water.

One idea would be to have the PCs stumble over a cache of some sort - perhaps a rockfall has exposed it, or the last person to use it did not conceal it properly. Make sure there is something valuable in it that the players are bound to nick. Then the original owners (maybe a Thamarite sect) come looking for it.

Maybe the first thinjg the PCs notice is that the person they sold it to go missing - a few days later his corpse is found floating in the harbour minus several fingers. Now the sect has some info about the group, and plans to give them a starring role in the next sacrificial ceremony....

Otherwise, they may come across thieves, smugglers etc. Many of these will be part of the organisation of one or other of the High Captains, so interference may draw their attention. Maybe the group is being manipulated by one of the high captains to disrupt the activities of another.