Temple of the Underworld: Adventures on the Planes

I have been playing a new campaign for a few months now. It is 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons rules in a campaign world of my design. It is focused on a megadungeon called the Temple of the Underworld, which was, as it's name suggests was devoted to deities of the dead or the underworld. The elven deity Labelas Enoreth, though devoted to longevity, is the closest thing that the elves have to a deity of the dead and thus also worshiped there.

The first couple of sessions were rather routine explorations of the first level of the dungeon, with a very brief foray into a flooded sub-level. However the campaign would be uprooted by the actions of the dwarven fighter Grell defiled a shrine devoted to a demigod son of Zeus. This angered Zeus, so Zeus sent a spirit to confront the PCs and give them a quest to fulfill. They were to travel to the Temple of Zeus far to the south and present themselves to the priest their for further instructions. They... didn't make it.

In order to get horses to expedite their journey they agreed to do a task for the local count. They followed a map to what was once a bandit's lair, but turned out to currently be inhabited by orcs. They did alright at first, but due to my lack of understanding of 5e encounter difficulties ended up running into an overwhelming group of orcs that quickly defeated them (I am strongly considering using converted stats from 1e or 2e rather than the existing 5e stats). Instead of allowing this to end in a TPK I judged that Zeus, wanting to insure that the PCs did not die without fulfilling their obligation to him rescued them.

They awoke in the presence of Zeus himself. Zeus bade them again to go to his temple, but this time the one in the extraplanar city of Sigil. The PCs agreed, but before leaving Olympus sought an audience with Ares, who granted it because the Count was preparing for a war and had his favor. So Ares granted them another quest in exchange for assistance, including a guide, which was a new PC (one who only showed up for one game as it turned out). The PCs then sought out the Great Eagles of Zeus, the descendants of the giant, golden eagle that is Zeus's personal companion.

Before they made it to the roost of the Eagles they encountered a dryad in a grove on the slopes of Mount Olympus. It charmed their guide and when they attempted to leave with him she summoned two wolves to attack the PCs. However they were able to smooth things over by mentioning their obligation to Zeus. When they met the Great Eagles they again mentioned their obligation to Zeus in order to secure their aid. Thus they secured a ride to the town of Thrassos, where there was a portal to the gate town of Glorium, from where they could get to Sigil. However, to access the portal they needed the consent of the town elders. It took some time to secure that consent from the busy elders, so while they waited they sought out a mage to send a message to the Count on the Material Plane. The halfling rogue, Himaru, was dismayed that unlike many of his companions he could not see in the dark and so commissioned a magic item that would make up for this weakness. The mage agreed in exchange for money, trade and a service. It seemed a certain house in town was the site of mysterious events.

They set out for the house and quickly experienced a number of strange phenomena, including two parallel passages that led back to the other and an unusual creature, like an ambulatory bush that was responsible for the strange phenomena. I used the The Random Esoteric Creature Generator by James Raggi to create this creature. They did not want to fight this bizarre creature and so parlayed. The creature seemed interested only in being left alone, so they left, but warned the creature that they could not guarantee others would not come. They did advise the mage of what they found. The PCs also took on another quest in order to hopefully expedite their audience with the elders. They pursued a priest of Loki to a nearby cave where they discovered a hidden, ruined temple to Loki. They soon found the priest, accompanied by hirelings and learned that he was searching for what he described as a Hammer of Thunderbolts with a short handle.

After a short time they fought a group of norkers and their orc allies. While the PCs were dealing with a group of goblins that arrived as a random encounter, pursuing them as they fled, the priest and his party slipped away and discovered their goal in a nearby hidden room. The PCs soon realized what was happening and hurried after them, discovering the priest trying to tip over a pedestal so that the hammer would fall in. After the battle the PCs realized what the hammer was, no mere Hammer of Thunderbolts but the Hammer of Thor himself, Mjolnir. The PCs resolved to return the hammer to Thor, not wanting to anger him by trying to keep it, not that they had any way to use the hammer. Of course by hindering Loki's priest they attracted the attention of Loki, but would hopefully have the favor of Thor.

After another week they elders could finally let them through the portal. In Glorium they sought out the Temple of Odin, which contained shrines to other deities, including Thor. They prayed at the shrine and Thor himself appeared. After a demonstration in which a tree was demolished by Mjolnir's power Thor granted boons- Boots and a Cloak of Elvenkind for the rogue and a ring of Enlarge/Reduce for the dwarf. Thor also directed them to the portal.

Finally they arrived in Sigil, the portal leading to the Great Gymnasium, headquarters of the Transcendent Order, one of several factions that held influence over the city. They were ushered out of the building by guards as the gymnasium was closed to the public at that time. They sought out a guide and found one, an Azer. He agreed to show them to the Temples of Zeus and Ares in the city and they got their new quests- find the relic that started the whole thing and bring it back to the Temple of Zeus and travel to a dungeon on the world of Abeir-Toril and share it with the Count. They were able to find a portal that led to the depths of the Temple of the Underworld (one I intended for them to find during there adventuring originally) and started searching for the shrine, since they came out in an unfamiliar area. They encountered Manes demons and Shadow Demon and a swarm of ambulatory fungi, before deciding to take a rest, which is where things stand now.

D&D Campaign Setting: Earth: the Planes

Here's what I've been working on on the "D&D Earth" Campaign Setting I talked about earlier. It's a work in progress, but it is about D&D Earth's relationship with the rest of the planes.

Monster Hill Session Report: Exceedingly Close, to an Extremely Distant World

Okay, this video doesn't directly relate to the topic of this post, however, recent events in my recent session of Monster Hill reminded me of this song.

You see I placed a portal on the second level of my dungeon. The party may soon discover said portal. In fact assuming the probabilities of them taking each route available to them are equal, they have a 25% chance of discovering it. The portal leads to the city of Sigil, from the Planescape Campaign Setting.

The session started off where the last one ended. However, the party now consists of two PCs, played by the same person, to help compensate for the low party size. I glossed over exactly how the new character, a barbarian, joined the party. I wish the last (and this) session hadn't ended in the dungeon for precisely this reason. Since a new party is supposed to form every new session, each session should end with the party back in town. However, since I only have the one player right now, it's less of a concern. I wouldn't normally allow the same player to control multiple characters at once either, though I do allow and even encourage multiple characters per player. I may allow this from now on though, provided there are less than three players at a particular session.

So the party descended the stairway to the second level, the "Upper Temples". The first room they found had a broken statue of Orcus, who in my campaign is presently dead. However that doesn't mean that he might not play a role in the campaign, especially with such a large chance that they might end up in Sigil. Neither the player nor his characters have any idea who Orcus is, but I hope this serves as good foreshadowing for his potential appearance in the campaign. Perhaps a certain petitioner might have a job for them that brings them to Automata just in time for them to see the start of the off-schedule Great Modron March...

There were five exits to the room and wouldn't you know it they pick the one with the teleporter at the end of it. So they find themselves in a room on the other side of the level. Unfortunately, that's when we had to end it. I am pretty anxious to know whether the party finds the portal. On the one hand, I am excited to potentially introduce Planescape elements which I was hoping to have an opportunity to do. On the other hand, I'm not sure that such a drastic change to the status quo of my campaign will be a good thing and I am concerned that this will complicate reintroducing the rogue character that my other player played in the first session, but hasn't been able to play since.

There is something else I'd like to talk about,  but am not ready quite yet. It is exciting news and I hope everything goes well, however things haven't progressed far enough that I feel comfortable talking about it. Also I encourage feedback on the Soldier base class I posted earlier.

the Planes of Existence

I've been thinking about how the planes of existence will be organized and which kinds will exist in my campaigns for some time now. The planes of existence are one of my favorite topics in fantasy games. The awesome Planescape campaign setting probably helps with that.

So my idea for what the planes should be like is very similar to the Great Wheel cosmology. However there are several changes as well.

• Limbo connects to all of the chaotic planes. Except, perhaps, the planes that are only secondarily chaotic like Carceri. Furthermore, Limbo has it's own layers, including the realms of various chaotic divinities. These are not the roiling maelstrom that Limbo proper is, but are all still quite chaotic in they're own ways.
• Olympus is chaotic neutral (good), like Ysgard. Olympus may be on the same layer, or a seperate one, I haven't yet decided. Arborea remains Chaotic Good, but may be undergoing some changes, like the whole plane may be getting the infinite layers deal that the Abyss has, with Arborea just being one of the layers. It may or may not be the uppermost one.
• The Beastlands are very similar, but the various Animal Lords & intelligent animals may be moved to the Outlands, or perhaps scattered throughout the planes, with the plane (or at least some layers of it) retaining the general wild feel. That region of the Outlands may get the name Beastlands, with the plane of Neutral (Chaotic) Good getting a new moniker.
• Not many changes to the lawful planes so far. One thing is that I may deemphasize Acheron's focus on battle. Also Grummsh and Magulybiet may be moving to the Abyss and (back to) the Nine Hells respectively. They're armies still battle, but largely as part of the larger Blood War. A significant fact is that since orcs and goblins are the same thing in my campaigns, they compete for worshipers. Thus they're relationship is altered somewhat.
• Outlands may have other layers. For instance Illsensine's realm may be on a separate layer (if I decide to keep Illsensine at all. If I do he may also be on a different plane and may be a different manner of being, like a "Great Old One" rather than a god), as may be Tír na nÓg.
• In addition to relatively normal worlds like Oerth and Abeir-Toril, material planes (not just demiplanes) may have wildly different rules and attributes. Oerth and Toril exist in a universe much like ours (I'm not using the crystal spheres idea from Spelljammer), but with more magic. In fact, like in the Spelljammer setting they may share the same universe, but others like Athas and Krynn would not. The Elemental Planes may just be a series of alternate Material Planes dominated by a single element, but I'm leaning towards having both the "main" Elemental Planes and element-dominated Material Planes. I'm changing around the Ethereal Plane. The Ether is part of all worlds, but the Ethereal Plane is not it's self coexistent with those worlds, instead merely connecting worlds.
• The Astral is in fact coexistent with the Material, but not the Outer Planes. So if you Astrally Project you start off in the part that is coexistent with the world and can from there travel to the higher spiritual planes (i.e. the Outer Planes). This is also the realm of ghosts and other spirits, the "Spirit World" of Oriental settings. The demiplane of Dreams, if I decide to use it would also be in the Astral Plane. So it basically takes the role of the Ethereal in many ways, as I judge to make more sense.

In general I'm looking to shake up the planes, so that there is more room for new material (though there was already a lot of room). My policy is not even the most knowledgeable of sages in places like the city of Sigil know everything about the planes (as much as Sigilians like to deride Primes as "clueless"). The Great Wheel is just one of many models for mapping out the planes, no more valid than any other. They may know that there are two layers in Bytopia, or three in Hades but there may be others that are uncharted.