Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dial_Up_Dragon 07-12-07, 03:23 AM	Does anyone remember this old boxed-set campaign? More importantly for my purposes, did anyone DM this box set back in the day, love it, and reuse it? To jog some of my kindred groggy old memories, Night Below was a campaign that began with the PC's stopping kidnappings and finding out that the kidnappers were delivering the spellcasters among the abducted to an Aboleth city deep in the Underdark in order to fuel a warped project to widen the Blood Queen's (a demigod of the Aboleth) ability to dominate person to hundreds or thousands of miles. If anyone has used this campaign and could offer some ideas to assist, or just had an idea sparked for it, please share. Thanks for your imput in advance!!
ewancummins 07-12-07, 11:57 PM	I still own the boxed set. What a classic! Great memories. I bought it after I played through the campaign as a player. Loved the big fight at the end. I would suggest starting PCs at first level and running them through some adventures in Haranshire. Make the first several adventures unconnected to the main plotline. Just let them have fun, fight some bandits maybe. Stuff like that. That way , they are able to establish a base of operations, make a few friends and enemies locally, and make a name for themselves as adventurers. Then start the main plotline as seamlessly as possible. They shouldn't realize they are now involved in the big storyline until later on. Intersperse trips to the Underdark with side quests and adventures in Haranshire and the nearby lands.
Dial_Up_Dragon 07-13-07, 04:55 AM	Yay! Someone answered! Thanks, again, ewancummins. I like that idea of not letting them realize the main plotline right away. I had planned to start the hunt for the kidnappers straight off, but perhaps not. I'm going to begin with the PC's captured, actually, by some of the kidnappers, but let them escape (good way to introduce the party - more explanation and motivation than the 'deliver the magic chest job' that the setting suggests). I was then going to have the local Count have them hunt those same folks down, but that's probably better to wait (see below). The PC's probably won't put their capture experience and the local citizens' disappearences together and start hunting down kidnappers because the kidnappers will be bandits from a group the PC's were just released from military duty in service fighting (the Vashar from BoVD - what's not to hate about them?) and the local citizens will blame the disappearences on the local noble (again, see below). Intersperse trips to the Underdark with side quests and adventures in Haranshire and the nearby lands. How's this: the local noble (Count Parlfray, wasn't it) is going to be a greedy Prince John style bully. His power over the region comes from his six or so 'knights' that bully the taxes and whatever else they feel like out of the poor denizens of Haranshire.The PC's are going to be from the Haranshire region, and the current nobleman is the son of the man they knew from three years ago. Plus, if the characters are from the region, that allows me just to hand them the basic area knowledge information and skip that drawn-out role-playing session.He'll initially hire the PC's (who are universally neutral good) to do some odd jobs, then ask them to become knight retainers (fellow bullies). Figured this will allow my one player to play out his "the Rock from Standing Tall characture & another to have his "I want to choose between good & evil". If overthrowing a bullying despot doesn't give you a base of operations and a name in the region, few things will. Meanwhile, the kidnappings that were being blamed on the nobleman & his lackeys will continue - suggesting something else is going on. Cue main plot. More ideas still hungrily awaited!!