Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tugaran 03-15-07, 08:51 AM	hi i need some help for the next gaming sessions. the heroes from my FR campaign are trapped in the Abyss. it´s the layer of a fallen angel from the god ilmater and the pcs must stop this foul creature. i thouht the layer could be a dark, foul swamp with a tower or keep in its center. there the heroes will find this dark angel and his minions. i need some hazards and dangers for the journey through this swamp. i could bring some fiendish creatures like will´o´wisp, a hydra or other monsters living in swamps. but i think it is not enough. i need some evil dangers :-) not only battles. do you have any ideas. i would be grateful :-) bye michael
Renvale999 03-15-07, 09:56 AM	Sink holes are always a good thing lol, you could also add the trait of moving terrain. As the PC's move, the terrain around moves with them, changing and shifting...can really get the PC's lost easily but a little bit more work on your end. I always like the swamp hag thing too, PC's run across some old swamp lady and have to answer riddles or they have to fight her(make sure they realize she is actually made of the plane itself, there would be VERY difficult to fight her). Just my two cents. P.S. Also things like poison gas geysers and nasty diseases carried by the bugs native to the plane, always fun!
Tugaran 03-15-07, 10:05 AM	thank you :-) the hag is already there. Zulbaret, a night hag. the fallen angel was imprisoned for many cneturies until my fool pcs ;-) freed him from his prison. now the angel has returned to his layer to claim his rulership. zulbaret was the master of the swamp layer and hates this fallen angel more than anything and wants him destroyed or imprisoned again the pcs have two choices: battle both the hag and angel or make a deal with the hag. mhhhh ... one of the pcs is a LG priest of ilmater :-) this changing and shifting thing is a good idea. and the sink hole too
Mpinkard 03-15-07, 11:09 AM	Take a look at some of the Second Edition Rules for the Vast Swamp in the Module "Four from Cormyr: Bad Neighbor Policy" The terrain was/is constantly shifting due to the fact that the area itself had shifted in from the Abyss. Because of the nature of an ever shifting environment, one of the possable encounters is the terrain itself, Reflex DC 15-25 or slip in the muck, if submerged they can gulp down some yummy stagnated swampwater (Fort DC scale to the party's EL or become Fatigued). Another suggestion to add tension is to reduce the parties over all Vision to 30feet, even Darkvision, due to the fact that it is not really dark but the fog. Random ignition of methane, this was also descibed in "Four from Cormyr", at first have it happen frequently enough that the players blow it off. Then have some Fiendish Willow-Wisp following them. One thing that I enjoy about layers of the Abyss, the natural creatures that habitate the layer, as you guys stated before only you can use random swamp encounters, but add in the half-fiend template to every creature. Small Village of Fiendish Humanoids(NE), the encounter should be low enough not to be a threat to the PCs but dangerous enough for the party so they understand whats at stake, once the party engages the village in hostilities the nearest devil will be alerted to the party's presence sending out demons native to the layer. Fields of freshly planted souls weaping in sorrow for the remainder of eternity. The villiage is not really hostile to the PCs unless they overtly act out against the villiagers. The village might even offer then safe harbor from the "wilds". Randomly make touch attacks for no dmg and place a tic mark by the players' name, every 10-15 touch attacks adds 1 point of subdual damage from bug bites. Creep them out, flatworms and lampries. Waist deep water, these creatures swim into boots detecting body heat/blood and begin feasting away. Sneaking through the muck with crazy sucking sounds... Travel distances of four to eight hours instead of eight to twelve. This muck, mud, waist deep water and evershifting bog is your second biggest enemy.
Tugaran 03-15-07, 11:43 AM	Great ideas. thanks. vision 30 feet is very good and this methane thing too. i will use it. and the village. great. i thought on using the rules of taint from Heroes of Horror. this layer is really an evil place :-)
tidus_the_great 03-16-07, 12:05 PM	for being in the abyss its always good if u want some tension between the characters. i think there is a certain type of monster that can take contol of a char it would be good to do that. im pretty sure the beast is small or tiny eatheral creature in mm2.
Lindwyrm 03-18-07, 09:46 PM	If they don't know they are in the Abyss, then there's always the Ilmateri hospice/asylum where selected guests (i.e. one of the party) get taken away to be tortured by the fallen one's minions, or possibly the fallen one... Test your priest's faith, and see if he'll live up to the dogma and take someone's place. I'd also suggest that Ilmater's old holy symbol of a bloody rack comes in somewhere...
Old Sparky 03-18-07, 10:17 PM	Apply Fiendish and Half-Fiend templates liberally to standard swamp encounters... advancing some critters by Hit Dice, as well... Another fun thing to include is another party of adventurers. They don't have to be heroes, they could be evil servants of someone demon lord scouting this plane for potential invasion and/or invasion. Such a party could be comprised of tieflings, half-fiends, and outsiders disguised as typical humanoids (succubus, mmmmmm). Of course, my favorite red herring is to include something which seems all-too-suspicious but is actually something benign or even good... which should cause some regret or shame if the party dispatches it out of suspicion.
Mpinkard 03-19-07, 12:19 PM	Of course, my favorite red herring is to include something which seems all-too-suspicious but is actually something benign or even good... which should cause some regret or shame if the party dispatches it out of suspicion. That is funny you mention that, over the week-end, the group I am DMing had made their way back into the Vast Swamp searching for the remains of a black dragon they had killed a ten day before. Behind the screen I had an encounter rolled up a few hours before the sesson and it was a song dragon that had been tracking down a dracolich. The PC Archmage suspected something odd about the human female, the polymorphed song dragon simply mentioned to the party that she had been tracking a dracolich and that they needed to hurry as not to loose the trail. The song dragon turned away from the party, after speaking to each one of them in her own languages via tounges, and began carfully moving the direction of some tracks she had noticed five minutes earlyer. Needless to say the Archmage cast truestrike on herself and took the first shot against the song dragon while the rest of the party moved into attack or attepmted to bull rush/charge the song dragon. She turned back to the party exclaiming "I thought you were goodly, curse you all!", breath weaponed them and teleported out.(During the turn prior the song dragon had been in mid-polymorph as the Archmage was shooting her) The party felt really bad and thought it was kinda funny at the same time. While it was intended that the song dragon help the party attack the Dragolich that had been the actual random encounter, it was important to teach the ever suspicious PCs not to judge a book by its polymorphed cover.
DavidBedlam 03-19-07, 12:40 PM	When I heard the words 'Abyssal Swamp' the first thing that popped into my head was Colossal Fiendish Dire Toads. Better yet, if you have Monster Manual II, you can add the Monster of Legend template to them, and through something really big at them. :D