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Night Below - 3.0 or 3.5 conversion existing?

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Jakuta Khan
Senior Scribe

496 Posts

Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 09:00:15

Hi everybody,

does someone know if there is an existing conversion of the above mentioned campaign for 3.0 or 3,5??

I would love to run this campaign in 3e, but doing myself would take years, given the extra time I have to do something like this....

thanks for feedback.

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6362 Posts

Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 23:21:25

My fondest memories of running a campaign are of this super module, i absolutely loved it, despite its flaws.

I spent the past few years rewriting the entire thing as well as converting it to my own version of 3.5 rules which unfortunately for you are quite different to the norm.

I kept the basic premise of Aboleth taking over the world. I set it in the North around the Cold Wood area (I set it 1360's DR but thats just my preference for playing).

For book one the PCs enter the area by river boat along the River Surbrin when they are ambushed by orcs (dominated of course). They escape into the Cold Wood and are attacked by other orc tribes along the way (undominated). They seek solace with a tribe of elves in the wood and are escorted to the Werebears farmstead (cue burning building rescue type mission with the werebear arriving later).

Then its arrival at a mining town in the mountains where they can investigate the deaths of miners and find a few clues that something obscure may be happening as well as help a druid sabotage the mining effort.

Next it is on to the main town where they are given the main story quests to kill a wyvern in the South, and clear a ruined keep just inside the boundaries of the Cold Wood.

The keep contains Ranchefus and his bandit troops who have only recently been dominated and the PCs discover a planned attack on the main town using the various tribes of orcs, the bandits, and the wyvern and its subjugate hobgoblins in the south.

From this point on it becomes a race against time for the PCs to gather the various allies (elves, werebear, druid, etc) they met and weaken the enemy before the attack on the town.

The wyvern is very intelligent and has attracted a hobgoblin monster cult around it, the PCs can attempt to kill it to which will weaken the attack.

The final attack consists of various stages where waves of orcs attack a walled town, the PCs have their own forces to combat it consisting mostly of peasants, the NPCs in town, the local lord and his men at arms, and the PCs allies.

Once they successfully beat off the attack the PCs are awarded rule of the ruined keep (which they must rebuild ala Neverwinter Nights 2 style) and charged with finding the source of the attack which leads them to caves to the north which house orcs and have a tunnel leading into a ruined dwarven city in the Underdark.

Im currently working on the parties descent into the Underdark (book 2), if you are interested i have what i have written on a word document or two but like i said the story is now very different to the original module and the rules are not exactly 3.5 (a mix of pathfinder and homebrew).

I decided to remove the Jeleneth plot hook as it was a very weak reason for a group to spend months traversing the Underdark so instead it is a task from the local lord (paid work of course) and they then get trapped underground.

I also intend to add a lot more life to the Underdark section (which was sadly just one massive dungeoncrawl which while fun was massively long), ideally im trying to weave in dwarf exiles, the svirfneblin, tribes of orcs, an undead city, a duergar city, a shadow dragon ruling a ruined dwarf city (i swear i didnt consciously steal this idea from Shimmergloom as i have never read the novel and its only briefly mentioned in sourcebooks so i must have read it and forgot about it before unconsciously using it in my conversion). By the end of book two the PCs will have gathered their own army from the Underdark races to combat what they believe is an illithid controlled army in a volcanic battleground.

Anyway thats what i have so far

Derulbaskul
Senior Scribe

Singapore
408 Posts

Posted - 14 Oct 2012 : 04:06:06

It formed the basis of the first 3E campaign that I ran and it finished around 24th-level. By about midway, however, it was nothing like the published work!

I set in in 1372DR in a previously unknown aboleth city between the Forest of Amtar and the drow city of T'lindhet. The PCs were all wild elves from Amtar and they started in slavery in Dambrath before escaping and then freeing their fellow elves from the aboleth who were working through drow heretics that had embraced psionics - more particularly, they had embraced subpsionics, the Shadow Weave version of psionics posted on the WotC website. Shar was the BBEG behind it all.

If I was to do it again, I would set it in the North and make sure I could use Mantol-Derith or a similar trading outpost. As it stands, Book 2 can get really bogged down unless you have a few "points of light" in the Underdark to provide a change of pace. Mantol-Derith is really good for this.

Really, the conversions shouldn't take too long: simply do not go overboard. Just generate three or four stat blocks for each type of monster at the most. And steal liberally.

Cheers
D

NB: Please remember: A cannon is a big gun. Canon is what we discuss here.

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6362 Posts

Posted - 14 Oct 2012 : 10:40:54

Mantol Derith is a brilliant idea, why didnt i think of that. Instead i generated my own urban areas within the underdark such as an entire undead city that is not initially hostile to the PCs but has a dark secret.

By any chance do you have details of these sub psionics, i've never heard of them.

Jakuta Khan
Senior Scribe

496 Posts

Posted - 14 Oct 2012 : 14:53:51

thx for the input guys.

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6362 Posts

Posted - 15 Oct 2012 : 00:26:56

Also given the nature of the extended foray into the Underdark and the Underdark's linear nature (you may not always be able to travel in any direction so you can usually only get to point C by passing through A and B first along the cavern route).
This means if the players want to get back to point A (the surface) they have to travel all the way back until they gain teleportation or something like that.

In my rewrite, i first prevented the PCs from travelling to the surface for some time (forcing them to explore the Underdark and use its resources rather than just finding surface aid to help them).
Then i permeated a series of teleport pads throughout the Underdark and one on the surface (created by cooperation of the Underdark races for trade purposes, just because they are natural enemies doesnt mean they cannot make money from one another).
The teleport pads required keys to be used, the keys could be purchased from Duergar for a significant sum and lasted for 1 trip to a specific destination (meaning you must remember to buy a return key).
Of course hidden throughout the Underdark were lost master keys (owned by the races that cooperated to build the pads, most of whom were slowly destroyed by the Aboleth over centuries) that allowed unlimited travel to a specific pad.

This gives the PCs reason to keep exploring and means to access the surface and other settlements once they reach a point that they need to travel back home etc.

Jakuta Khan
Senior Scribe

496 Posts

Posted - 16 Oct 2012 : 09:02:21

sounds interesting, but as you said, the campaign is freakingly difficult.

Azymarandyr
Acolyte

USA
3 Posts

Posted - 06 Oct 2024 : 20:03:53

I am currently working on converting Night Below to Pathfinder 1e, I have chosen to set the adventure near Thunderstone in Cormyr(1372DR) So far it hasn't been much of a task. I am curious if anyone else has tried to convert the Realms to the Pathfinder ruleset, and what challenges have arose?

Ozreth
Learned Scribe

193 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2024 : 03:09:50

quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

I spent the past few years rewriting the entire thing as well as converting it to my own version of 3.5 rules which unfortunately for you are quite different to the norm.

I actually love seeing 3.5 house rules, especially extensive ones. Do you have these available to read anywhere? (I recognize you posted this quite some years ago, just hoping you're still around).

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6362 Posts

Posted - 20 Dec 2024 : 16:54:02

Unfortunately i changed the rules again and again and never kept the old versions.

The system is now a step dice pool, single resolution mechanic system with no classes and no levels, able to be used with any genre.

So if you want a 3.5 dnd system then there probably isnt much point looking at it, but if you want to see something different that allows you to play a fantasy setting but with a lot less work, then i'm happy to share (message me with your email if you want a copy).

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