Excellent inspiration for a Sharn campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Excellent inspiration for a Sharn campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
DBlizzard
08-23-07, 01:25 PM Recently I've been going through my recorded episodes of the History Channel TV show Cities of the Underworld (http://www.history.com/minisites/citiesoftheunderworld). Watching several of them I had all sorts of inspiration for running a Sharn campaign.

We know that Sharn was built on the ruin of an older city (actually, at least two of them) and that there is an underworld beneath it. This series gives great examples of how this works in the real world.

There are examples of people digging and stumbling upon a lost series of room in a Philadelphia fort. We have people who excavated their home to find ancient tunnels, rooms, and even whole streets buried, and the entrances are in their homes. There are small entrances next to busy city streets that lead directly to mazes of caves, rooms, sewers, etc.

I highly recommend this series if you are looking for inspiration.
Nlogue
08-23-07, 03:15 PM This looks absolutely awesome DBlizzard, thanks for pointing this out!
DBlizzard
08-23-07, 04:34 PM It was pretty cool to see them walk into someone's row house on a busy city street...walk down a hall...open a door..and find stairs leading down to a whole underworld. I could just see an adventuring party in Sharn walking into a rundown house, opening a door and finding themselves in the dungeon!

Throughout the series there were a lot of places where the "dungeon" entrances were. A couple of churches (one church had a whole underground chapel to the "cult of the dead" underneath it), one hospital, a few homes, a couple of doors right on city streets.
Rechan
08-23-07, 06:44 PM Now, given that Sharn is multi-levelled, do you think that these hide-away places would be on the Lower level, or do you think that there would be some in the upper levels too?

I imagine that you would find similar situations - due to construction and such, you'd have things like rooms out of no-where.
DBlizzard
08-23-07, 07:03 PM I imagine that you would find similar situations - due to construction and such, you'd have things like rooms out of no-where.

I think the handful of rooms might be found in the upper levels. The vast underworlds are probably only in the lower levels. Then again, maybe the entire bottom of Skyway is riddled with construction passages that have been sealed and forgotten.

A lot of the underground things they showed had other uses. Some of them were sewers, often converted to things like bomb shelters during WW II.
eehamburg
08-24-07, 12:14 PM I think the handful of rooms might be found in the upper levels. The vast underworlds are probably only in the lower levels. Then again, maybe the entire bottom of Skyway is riddled with construction passages that have been sealed and forgotten.

A lot of these had other uses. Some of them were sewers, often converted to things like bomb shelters during WW II.

The Skyway had bomb shelters during WW II?? I didn't even know that Breland was involved in WW II. No wonder the glass tower fell. It was from a bombing.
DBlizzard
08-24-07, 01:17 PM The Skyway had bomb shelters during WW II?? I didn't even know that Breland was involved in WW II. No wonder the glass tower fell. It was from a bombing.

Fixed. That's what I get for getting a good idea while writing it and going back and editing it in before finishing late at night.
OctaviusIII
08-24-07, 02:50 PM I'd think that the bottom of Skyway would be a very good place for some high-end condos with a window view of the entire city, unobstructed by the edge of anything. The absolute bottom would have something a transparent viewing turret, so you could literally see the entire city in 360 degrees.

But the dungeons of Skyway would no doubt be far more extensive than just along the edge - who wants to live in the middle of a floating mountain?
Cavienn
08-24-07, 03:18 PM From what I can gather, Skyway floats on Tenser's Floating Disk-like magic, not a big mountain. From that, I gather than the ground depth is only big enough for some plants to survive--no extensive passageways.

Actually, the description of the park in skyway says that cloudstuff makes up the trees and whatnot, and the frozen pool in the middle shows the city far below. THat makes me think there *is* no ground, other than the invisible disk-thing, and maybe a foot of solid cloudstuff.

On the other hand, it's your campaign, and dungeons below Skyway sound awesome ;)
Hopeless
08-24-07, 03:27 PM From what I can gather, Skyway floats on Tenser's Floating Disk-like magic, not a big mountain. From that, I gather than the ground depth is only big enough for some plants to survive--no extensive passageways.

Actually, the description of the park in skyway says that cloudstuff makes up the trees and whatnot, and the frozen pool in the middle shows the city far below. THat makes me think there *is* no ground, other than the invisible disk-thing, and maybe a foot of solid cloudstuff.

On the other hand, it's your campaign, and dungeons below Skyway sound awesome ;)

Just a thought but given its proximity to a specific elemental plane what if that secret level is ctually in another plane entirely and what you should be worrying about is if you make a wrong turn and find yourself falling straight down towards Sharn from udnerneath the skyway itself!
DBlizzard
08-24-07, 03:44 PM On the other hand, it's your campaign, and dungeons below Skyway sound awesome ;)

I'm just going by the map (http://shadow.wizards.com/leaving.asp?url=/dnd/images/sharn_maps/M19Sharnsideview_400.jpg&origin=dnd_eb_20050211a). It looks like there is room for them there.
androkguz
08-24-07, 04:21 PM Nah, the set as it's (you can change it) has Skyway floating over a disk. I can't see the map you're refering to, but check out it's not arcanix.
There is no mundane way of having dungeons under Skyway... but what about teleportation and extradimensional space?

Oh, and I love the idea that an adventure can start with "someone found an ancient [something that belongs to a city] underground" and I love even more the idea that in undercities that same thing can happen with... "underundercities"
DBlizzard
08-24-07, 04:30 PM I can't see the map you're refering to, but check out it's not arcanix.

Fixed. Yes, there is a disc, but so much more.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DBlizzard 08-23-07, 01:25 PM	Recently I've been going through my recorded episodes of the History Channel TV show Cities of the Underworld (http://www.history.com/minisites/citiesoftheunderworld). Watching several of them I had all sorts of inspiration for running a Sharn campaign. We know that Sharn was built on the ruin of an older city (actually, at least two of them) and that there is an underworld beneath it. This series gives great examples of how this works in the real world. There are examples of people digging and stumbling upon a lost series of room in a Philadelphia fort. We have people who excavated their home to find ancient tunnels, rooms, and even whole streets buried, and the entrances are in their homes. There are small entrances next to busy city streets that lead directly to mazes of caves, rooms, sewers, etc. I highly recommend this series if you are looking for inspiration.
Nlogue 08-23-07, 03:15 PM	This looks absolutely awesome DBlizzard, thanks for pointing this out!
DBlizzard 08-23-07, 04:34 PM	It was pretty cool to see them walk into someone's row house on a busy city street...walk down a hall...open a door..and find stairs leading down to a whole underworld. I could just see an adventuring party in Sharn walking into a rundown house, opening a door and finding themselves in the dungeon! Throughout the series there were a lot of places where the "dungeon" entrances were. A couple of churches (one church had a whole underground chapel to the "cult of the dead" underneath it), one hospital, a few homes, a couple of doors right on city streets.
Rechan 08-23-07, 06:44 PM	Now, given that Sharn is multi-levelled, do you think that these hide-away places would be on the Lower level, or do you think that there would be some in the upper levels too? I imagine that you would find similar situations - due to construction and such, you'd have things like rooms out of no-where.
DBlizzard 08-23-07, 07:03 PM	I imagine that you would find similar situations - due to construction and such, you'd have things like rooms out of no-where. I think the handful of rooms might be found in the upper levels. The vast underworlds are probably only in the lower levels. Then again, maybe the entire bottom of Skyway is riddled with construction passages that have been sealed and forgotten. A lot of the underground things they showed had other uses. Some of them were sewers, often converted to things like bomb shelters during WW II.
eehamburg 08-24-07, 12:14 PM	I think the handful of rooms might be found in the upper levels. The vast underworlds are probably only in the lower levels. Then again, maybe the entire bottom of Skyway is riddled with construction passages that have been sealed and forgotten. A lot of these had other uses. Some of them were sewers, often converted to things like bomb shelters during WW II. The Skyway had bomb shelters during WW II?? I didn't even know that Breland was involved in WW II. No wonder the glass tower fell. It was from a bombing.
DBlizzard 08-24-07, 01:17 PM	The Skyway had bomb shelters during WW II?? I didn't even know that Breland was involved in WW II. No wonder the glass tower fell. It was from a bombing. Fixed. That's what I get for getting a good idea while writing it and going back and editing it in before finishing late at night.
OctaviusIII 08-24-07, 02:50 PM	I'd think that the bottom of Skyway would be a very good place for some high-end condos with a window view of the entire city, unobstructed by the edge of anything. The absolute bottom would have something a transparent viewing turret, so you could literally see the entire city in 360 degrees. But the dungeons of Skyway would no doubt be far more extensive than just along the edge - who wants to live in the middle of a floating mountain?
Cavienn 08-24-07, 03:18 PM	From what I can gather, Skyway floats on Tenser's Floating Disk-like magic, not a big mountain. From that, I gather than the ground depth is only big enough for some plants to survive--no extensive passageways. Actually, the description of the park in skyway says that cloudstuff makes up the trees and whatnot, and the frozen pool in the middle shows the city far below. THat makes me think there is no ground, other than the invisible disk-thing, and maybe a foot of solid cloudstuff. On the other hand, it's your campaign, and dungeons below Skyway sound awesome ;)
Hopeless 08-24-07, 03:27 PM	From what I can gather, Skyway floats on Tenser's Floating Disk-like magic, not a big mountain. From that, I gather than the ground depth is only big enough for some plants to survive--no extensive passageways. Actually, the description of the park in skyway says that cloudstuff makes up the trees and whatnot, and the frozen pool in the middle shows the city far below. THat makes me think there is no ground, other than the invisible disk-thing, and maybe a foot of solid cloudstuff. On the other hand, it's your campaign, and dungeons below Skyway sound awesome ;) Just a thought but given its proximity to a specific elemental plane what if that secret level is ctually in another plane entirely and what you should be worrying about is if you make a wrong turn and find yourself falling straight down towards Sharn from udnerneath the skyway itself!
DBlizzard 08-24-07, 03:44 PM	On the other hand, it's your campaign, and dungeons below Skyway sound awesome ;) I'm just going by the map (http://shadow.wizards.com/leaving.asp?url=/dnd/images/sharn_maps/M19Sharnsideview_400.jpg&origin=dnd_eb_20050211a). It looks like there is room for them there.
androkguz 08-24-07, 04:21 PM	Nah, the set as it's (you can change it) has Skyway floating over a disk. I can't see the map you're refering to, but check out it's not arcanix. There is no mundane way of having dungeons under Skyway... but what about teleportation and extradimensional space? Oh, and I love the idea that an adventure can start with "someone found an ancient [something that belongs to a city] underground" and I love even more the idea that in undercities that same thing can happen with... "underundercities"
DBlizzard 08-24-07, 04:30 PM	I can't see the map you're refering to, but check out it's not arcanix. Fixed. Yes, there is a disc, but so much more.