Our plot had the group delve deep into a dwarven mine, chasing a band of orcs that had kidnapped a small child, this child is important to the group, they are really taking care of her.
The dwarves had all recently been killed by the orcs, who had taken up residence. They got beat by the orcs and taken captive. Here they found the girl and managed to free themselves from their prison. But the prison had an old ancient dwarven spell that asked them riddles, each time they got a riddle wrong they were frozen in time. 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, 5 years, 5 decades etc. The group emerged from the prison 5 months later, all the orcs has been killed by something truly dark. A seal had been broken in one of the rooms that leads to the under dark.
Voices were coming from that broken seal. Also, they were trapped in the mines. It had been closed up. They decided to find another way out. Long story short, the group removed and illusion that revealed a gateway to the abyss, from it comes a Balor. It chases them through the mines and they are in a room with a pit into endless darkness...
In a desperate decision to flee from the Balor they leap into the darkness... One character taunts the balor who smashes him into the pit with his whip. The balor leaps down after them. That is where our session ends. The pit could lead anywhere and contain anything... But I made it clear it was a very long drop.. I'm looking for some ideas on what they could find down there and how they survive. As many different ideas as possible!! The theme of the plot surrounds an orcus cult. Cheers.
The endless pit is a portal to the Negative Energy Plane, specifically to Tcian Sumere, a fortress built by Orcus as a place to fall back in case things ever went terribly wrong for him. Google up "Tcian Sumere" to see more information about it. It's mentioned on the wiki for Orcus as well.
I can see the game tacking a turn toward a planescape-type storyline.
The party is lost on another plane or world and must find their way home, traveling from world to world in search of a particular portal leading to their own and each time they cross a portal they don't know the destination but hope its their way home. During that time, the dark cult is searching for a mcguffin to destroy all the bridges between worlds, which would leave the party's homeworld under their rule. The cult has agents searching in every world and the party confront them many times leading to a climax against the major villain, leader of the cult.
For inspiration see the Kingdom Heart franchise.
Edit: Maybe the Balor is still chasing them, so their quest is time sensitive, everytime they stay to long in one place the Balor catch on to them and they put their newfound friends in danger. This will avoid them staying in one world to long and will force them to travel (railroading without railroading as they are free to do as they please).
I'm liking these ideas. First they are in Tcian Sumere and must desperately escape at all costs. They wouldn't survive here very long. Considering a Balor is within the same plane and is hunting them down, they'll have to get away from it at all costs.
I see them falling into random Towns and villages across different worlds and planes, at a time where their intervention is crucial to saving someone maybe? They can choose to help or stay out of it, and try to find a way to move to the next plane each time.
I guess I'll have to come up with a way for them to move from one plane of existance to the other.. something they have to work towards (collecting things maybe, or finding a specific type of portal they find through tracking with Arcane magic?) .. things happen around them to 'slow them down' and they have to decide if they are going to stay in one place too long or not.
WIth regards to the Balor following them, I'll have to make it known to them that it's getting closer somehow, have some kind of way for them to measure or sense it's presence approaching.
Cogs are turning!
In Planescape, the way you got around was by using portals ("gates") that would require the use of a "key" to activate. A gate could be any bounded space, even a doorway you wouldn't expect. But if you went through that doorway with the right key, off you went to some other plane. So this presents a couple of challenges: Finding a doorway in Tcian Sumere that is a gate to someplace better than where they are currently (but may not in any way be safe) and figuring out what the key to that gate is. Perhaps the gate to a safer place is at the end of some section of Tcian Sumere which is otherwise a fairly standard dungeon run full of Orcus-related elements and cultists. Getting the information about the key might require exploration and social interaction or the use of divination magic.
As for the balor, I'd have a standing countdown: If the PCs linger in any one place for longer than 10 minutes, there is a chance the balor turns up (a roll of 19-20 on d20). At this rate, it means the PCs have a 46% of encountering the balor if they sit around for an hour doing a short rest. This assumes, of course, they do not take steps to mitigate their chances which would be another good goal for them to pursue: "How do we cut down on the chance that the balor finds us?" That'd be an interesting problem for the players to figure out.
In any case, use Tcian Sumere to foreshadow some move by Orcus that will take place later in the campaign when the adventurers are higher level and more capable of disrupting his plans.
A deep pool of water lies at the bottom of the long drop. Maybe an underground lake, maybe something more like a watering hole.
Gandalf / Elminster is down there, too, in a small boat, wondering what took them so long to catch up. 
Or maybe not.
Portals can be made with any kind of seal or filter on it you want; why not "only Tier 1 characters may enter" to get the Balor off their tails? Now they enter something like Alice in Wonderland.
Or you could have a "helpful stranger" who lives in Sigil and needs some manpower to perform some task. The PCs cannot be traced back, since they've never met this person before. Reward for doing the job is to be shown the door back to their Home. (Much like the 2001 Monolith is a trap for a skilled but unwary prey, the drop into darkness is a trap for somebody skilled but unwary.)
Is the girl coming along for all this? If not, where is she?
Give the PCs a way to get in enough rest to face the upcoming challenges. This might be as simple as slamming the closet door shut behind them and being very quiet while the Balor storms through the room and out the other side. (Does anybody in the party have an illusion cantrip? Footsteps in the dust going out the OTHER door, and extending down the hall as far as the eye can see.)
BRJN wrote:
Dude you are my hero!
Your adventure sounds metal as hell.
Tcian Sumere sounds like a great plan, please keep posting on your game, I’d love to hear more.
PS: I'm stealing that frozen in time riddle trap.
Theros wrote:
Very nice - love the Frozen in Time Riddle Trap and will be stealing it as well and I like Timboarama's twist, too. You could make it more about the passage of time as a plot device with an NPC for frame of reference: set it to something like one, five or ten years so that they see the NPC age and there is more of a progression of events outside the trap.